


The Lion Touched

by Kisleth



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action/Adventure, Coran is the weird uncle, Developing Relationship, Found Family, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Minor canon divergence, Nightmares, POV Lance (Voltron), Pining for Idiots, Post-Season/Series Finale, Repairing Friendships, Slow Burn, end of the world (again), they/them pronouns for Pidge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:01:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 29,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27650374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kisleth/pseuds/Kisleth
Summary: Almost five years after everything happened, Lance had settled into his quiet farming life. But he's starting to feel restless and the recurring nightmares aren't helping at all. And then one night, he has the worst one yet. When he wakes, the marks on his face are glowing and he knows one thing for certain. Blue has come back for him, and she needs his help.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron), Past Allura/Lance (Voltron) - Relationship
Comments: 88
Kudos: 125





	1. Wake-up Call

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jmercedesd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jmercedesd/gifts).



> Hi all. This is my first Voltron fic and honestly, my first fic in about 4 years. I have too much planned. This is going to be LONG, and although the burn is slow: Klance is endgame. 
> 
> If you like this, please let me know! Your comments are my motivation. I'll be adding tags as I go. Please keep them in mind.
> 
> I'm gifting this to my IRL bestie who has been my sounding board and editor for this fic. They're amazing and this fic wouldn't be as coherent as it is without them.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance often has nightmares. This one feels like it might be real.

Lance would never forget the sound of the last roar of the Lions and the way it pulsed through his entire body, making him feel the most alive he'd been since they'd lost Allura. It had been a summoning. Come and say goodbye. He'd run as fast as he could to follow the beckoning thread of Blue's mind to his own. Red's had reached out to him next and he was both ablaze and soothed at the same time from the twining link on their consciousnesses. He nearly tripped over his own feet in the halls but a hand had caught his arm.

Keith. He'd run up beside Lance without him even noticing. They ran together in near-perfect sync, Keith's hand never leaving Lance's bicep. Lance pulled him as much as Keith pushed. In the end, he was lucky that the hand remained as he had stumbled to a stop in the courtyard, his eyes locked on the glowing eyes of Blue. He could hear the footsteps of the other Paladins around him, could feel a buzz of curiosity and inquiry at the back of his mind that he knew was them.

He opened his mouth to speak, but Blue cut him off.

_If you ever have need of me, call, and I will come, Little One._

Blue had always been so gentle in Lance's mind and this was no different. He found his mind flashing through memories of them together. Of sneaking off to talk to her during his downtime, napping on her paw or nose while she accessed his mind and shared her thoughts. She had been gentle waves lifting him up, encouraging him to keep trying, showing him his worth and place on the team. He had flourished under her guidance and love. Anyone who thought that he had out-grown her had no idea who she really was. She knew that he would have been perfect for Red, he'd just needed a little help.

She pulled away from the forefront of his mind and Red took her place, although she didn't speak to him at first. He hadn't had the same connection to Red as he did Blue. Red was direct and succinct, her thoughts sharp and to the point whereas Blue's flowed and ebbed around the points she encouraged Lance to figure out on his own. Red was fiercely protective of all the Paladins, but of Lance and Keith the most. She too had left his mind seared with a goodbye. _Take care of yourself, Kit._ Motherly warmth flooded his mind and then...

The Lions rose into the sky and Lance had to wonder if the other paladins had had the same brief goodbyes and what their Lions had said to them. He even thought of asking but as the Lions arced off, they took with them the bond. That constant feeling in the back of his mind of his fellow paladins had been suddenly ripped from them all. They'd been linked for how many years now and now... nothing. He'd never felt a loss like it, except maybe when Allura had walked away and saved the multiverse but giving herself to it. It was a great sucking wound in his chest and a hole drilled into the back of his skull all at once.

But even then, he could still feel an echo of Allura within him. The Lions had left them but the faint presence he felt of Allura hadn't. Maybe because her love had marked him permanently.

Pidge had been the one to point out that the marks under his eyes had glowed for as long as the light trails could be seen after the Lions departed. But before she could say more, fat tears started to streak down her cheeks and Lance had pulled her in for a hug. Even though their bond was gone, an aching hole within each of the paladins there, they knew that the others were feeling the same. They came together and held one another.

This moment was how Lance's nightmares usually began.

* * *

_Little One._

Lance felt little, out in the vastness of the fields at night. He didn't remember coming out here, but he had been sleepwalking as of late. Restlessness had seeped into his bones like a winter's chill that you couldn't shake off no matter how close you sat to the fire. The other ex-Paladins had found their places in the universe and although he thought he'd found his... He loved his family and he loved their farm and all the people who came and learned from them but lately he felt off. 

He walked down the lane, listening to the rustle of his bare feet in the grass and craned his head back to look up at the stars. It was late enough that the fireflies had gone to sleep and the bugs that usually sang on hot nights had quieted. He was alone with the silence of the stars and the whisper of the wind. It was as deafening as it was isolating.

A light flickered across the field and he paused. A frown curled at his lips. It flickered again and pointed at him but somehow it didn't light up the field. He started toward it, glad that it was in the direction of the field lanes so he wasn't stepping over the plants. The sound of his feet on the ground echoed too loud in his ears. A second light appeared next to it, both of them moving in sync enough that for a second Lance thought they were eyes.

So focused on the glowing eyes that were so familiar that his heart ached, he didn't notice the whispering that had started around him at first. It picked up as he moved faster toward the lights and he tried to decipher it but he couldn't understand the words. There were too many voices all at once. He stopped on his way toward the lights to look around and flinched when something tugged on the leg of his sleep pants. There was no one there. He looked down and recoiled at the sight of an inky black tendril plucking at the fabric.

Lance pulled away, his eyes straining in the dim light of the cloud covered moon. The whispers were growing louder and around him the plants were reaching for him, each one gnarled and black with wicked thorns that shone despite the lack of strong enough light. "What the...?"

He tried to step away from the searching, grasping thorns but there were more behind him. They reached for him from every direction. They grabbed at his clothes, the thorns just barely missing his skin. Tendrils try to trip him up, thorns to grabbing and pulling and every cut burns as if it were edged in the energy of Voltron's blade itself.

The whispers' volume rose with Lance's panic, his heart pounding in his chest as he tried twisting out of the grasp, trying to run toward the light. Through it all, he heard one voice in particular. It was clearer than anything else and yet he still couldn't place it.

_Little One..._

The pulsing ache in his chest grew, each throb in time with the pounding of his frantic heart. He reached up to cup it, rub the ache away, but what he felt _wasn't_ the tee shirt he'd woken up in. He looked down and was granted the visual confirmation of what his fingers had felt. It was like the aftermath of a bonfire, charred and stiff but fragile under a grasping fist. His breath caught and he coughed on the ash that rose from his chest. The black charcoal spread from his heart, his clothes floating away over that mark as if it were ash from a campfire. It felt just like the ache that was always there. The loss of the bond and of the Lions had always felt like a hole in his chest. But he'd never _seen_ it like this.

_Little One..._

He whipped around, trying to find the source of that voice that somehow cut through the jumble of words assaulting his ears. There was no one he could see around him, just vines and thorns that were growing and writhing around him. He could hardly focus on the voice that sounded so familiar as he fought to get away, to go to the lights that he just _knew_ were beckoning him closer.

_Lance...!_

The desperation in the voice and the shock of its clarity in his jumbled mind made him lose his balance. The vines snapped tightly around him. He arched with a scream as they dragged him down to the damp earth. The scream cut off as the vines slithered into his mouth. He choked as they pressed into his throat, thorns pushing through his cheeks and lips. It burned, burned, burned. Everything in his body screamed _FIGHT!_ as the plants started to pull him under the soil.

A blinding light flashed through the darkness and with it a roar that woke Lance from the nightmare. His room was too bright and tinged blue, the marks on his face burning with the intensity of the light shining from them.

_Little One, this time, **we** need **you**._


	2. Departure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She was here. He had to go to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been really excited to write more and I hope you all enjoy where we are going!

Lance’s heart raced in his chest as he flung off his blankets and jumped to his feet. _Blue_. He hadn’t felt that touch, that _connection_ , in years. And he hadn’t been imagining it, it was still there. Faint, but _real._ Like a string, it tugged gently on his heart to guide him back to her. It wanted to pull him right for the same fields that he’d been wandering in his dream.

The marks on his face still glowed, the light refracting around the room as he turned in a circle and basked in the feeling of his Lion’s presence. The way the room swirled around him in blue almost made him feel nauseous. He touched one of the glowing marks, a warmth and reassurance emanating from it that he knew didn’t come from within. He wasn’t sure where it came from, but it helped slow his rabbiting heart. He took a slow breath, and then another.

Blue was here, for him, and she needed his help. As if he could say no to her.

But…

It was the middle of the night and he couldn’t just run off in his pajamas. He’d read plenty of stories in his free time about heroes and quests. They were always unprepared and it tended to bite them in the ass. Well, this wasn’t his first quest. He’d been an active Paladin of Voltron for, like, two years. Maybe three. Time had gotten really weird multiple times and it was a headache to figure things out. He wasn’t even the right age for the year he was born on Earth and—

He shook his head from that thought spiral and turned on his bedside lamp. Preparedness. Pack a bag, write a letter to his mama so she didn’t hunt him down, grab some food. Who knew what kind of supplies were on Blue (or if they’d gained some kind of sentience after sitting around for that long). He dithered on what to pack at first as he opened his bag. 

Lance took a deep breath and concentrated for a moment on the delicate connection between him and Blue, trying to get a sense of her thoughts and urgency. If he could get any clue on how long he’d be gone… But no. Nothing other than how she needed him filtered through. It had been a long time since he’d felt needed like that. It formed a lump in his throat and it took three tries before he could swallow it back down.

He moved quickly after that, a need to reunite with Blue driving him as he packed up as many clothes as he could fit, as well as his pillow. The quilt his abuelita had made for him when he’d finally come home was carefully folded and tucked in on top. He scrambled into jeans, hopped lightly to pull on his socks and boots, and grabbed his faithful jacket that had been with him through all his space adventures before. He filled it out now, but it was still comfortable and he’d like to think it’d bring him good luck.

Nearly at the door, he remembered that he needed to write a letter to his mama. And probably bring his tablet with him to communicate with his family and friends, lest they hunt him down. He grabbed it and stuffed it in a side pocket of his duffle before sitting at the desk in his room, small plants ringing the edges. The paper he found was dirty and crinkled from getting wet at some point, but it would have to do.

_Mama,_

_The Blue Lion came back for me. She needs my help. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone, but I will come back safe._

_All my love to you and the family. Please don’t worry about me too much! I might be rusty, but I know what I’m doing._

_-Lance_

Short and sweet, he hoped. He could never find the right words when he needed them these days. He took a slow, deep breath, and grabbed his things, sneaking down to the kitchen. He snagged a grocery bag and the quietest non-perishable foods that he knew he could cook with. (A moment of weakness had him snatching a tamale from the fridge, something he could eat once the adrenaline wore off and he found himself hungry.) He still had plenty of practice from sneaking out as a kid to get out the back door to the kitchen without making a sound. From there, it was a quick jog out to the fields.

Everything looked too much like his nightmare. The moon was new and the stars were far and everything was shades of black that could reach out and grab him and drag him under the soil. As he looked across the fields to the tree line, he even saw the two lights. But he knew what those lights were this time, and he wasn’t going to let lingering fears keep him away from Blue.

He tore off down a lane, his duffle bag thudding heavily against his back while the food bag swung wildly from his hand. The tug between them grew stronger the closer he got and he barely bit down the excited whoop that was building in his chest. He couldn’t remember the last time that excitement like this surged through him, nor the last time he smiled until his face ached.

Lance burst through the bushes and spotted _her._ She dipped her head as he ran up to her, dropping the bag of food so he could hug her nose as she pressed it to his chest. “Blue! I thought I’d never see you again.” He gasped as she nudged him harder and he pressed his cheek to the warm metal. He could feel the marks glowing on his cheeks, a sharp flare—there and gone. As it disappeared, their bond came surging back so hard that he forgot how to breathe.

There she was, in his mind like she’d never left. She shared her emotions through resurfaced memories of Lance’s, the best way she could equate her feelings to his. Her joy of reuniting with him pulled up the memory of the first time he rolled down a hill when he was four, his belly swooping and his laughter high and bright. Her urgency for them to leave was a kaleidoscope of moments before fights they had fought together. Her ache of loss was the holes in his life, Allura, and the other Paladins, as the loss of their bond had weakened their friendship. Lastly, her fear of something that he couldn’t discern brought up his fears of when Keith left the Paladins to fight with the Blade of Marmora.

It was so much all at once that he clung to her and blinked back the overwhelmed tears. “Blue…” His voice cracked and he slowly pulled back and looked up into her large glowing eyes. “What… what happened? Why did you leave us? Why are you back…?”

 _We must go, Little One. I’ll explain when we’re away from Earth._ She sat back and opened her mouth to him, letting him climb inside and see the ramp up to the pilot’s chair for the first time in years. 

Lance grabbed his things and walked in. He was fine, completely fine, until faced with the chair. He froze, his eyes locked on to where Allura had last been. The air in the pilot’s cabin even faintly smelled like her, the scent pulling memories to the forefront of his mind. He stared at the seat, his eyes burning. How could he sit where she sat; how could he take over the bond between Paladin and Lion from her? 

Comfort (his mother wrapping him up in a comforter fresh from the dryer and smelling of sunshine) flooded him from his connection with Blue. He blinked away the tears and continued past the chair and out into pilot storage so he could stow his things and… and change into his armor. He hesitated to open the door (what if, somehow, Allura’s armor was in there? How was he to face it? He’d thought that he’d found his closure and that he was _fine_ but having to face this part of his life again, it was too much). Blue brushed his mind again, akin to a cat rubbing its cheek against him, and he opened the door. Just blue armor met his eyes.

Lance changed quickly, the armor adjusting to how he’d changed over the past four years as he put it on. It fit him perfectly, just like it always had, and it was like Blue was wrapping him up in a hug. A few steadying breaths later, and he was seated at the controls. In the semi-dark, he felt like he was in a void, one that threatened to swallow him up. Was he really going to do this? Was he the right person for the job? Uncertainty coiled in his stomach as he reached out for the HOTAS (was that even what it was really called? It was common terminology in the Garrison and it wasn’t like the other four original Paladins all from said Garrison would call it something other than Hands On Throttle-And-Stick).

The HUD flickered to life and Lance blinked away the glare of the sudden blue screen. He slowly settled into the seat, the HOTAS perfectly fitting his hands in a way that they hadn’t before when he was only a teen. “Okay, Blue.” He smiled a little as he looked around the HUD, taking in the basics of their surroundings, the weather conditions, anything that mattered when it took to getting them up in the sky. “Show me what you can do, girl.”

With a stuttered hop, the Blue Lion pushed off from the ground. As they shot off into the sky, Lance let out an exhilarated whoop.


	3. Broken Bonds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mend what's broken.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It looks like I'm able to at least update every 5 days, currently. I'm working on editing 4 and writing 5 right now. And, uh, the plot has exploded for the ending at least so it's time to work on the wiggly middle. I wasn't expecting to have so much plot. This might be a very long fic. I hope you're in it for the long haul. And hey, let me know how I'm doing?

“Not the smoothest take off, Blue.” Lance commented, a small frown curling the corners of his mouth as he eased back on the controls. She shuddered under him still, a sharp contrast to how they had always flown together before. And were they going slower than he remembered? Or had he just gotten too used to Red and her speed? Exiting the atmosphere was the roughest; a sharp jerk resulted in a somersault as they broke out into open space. “Blue?!” Quick reflexes and muscle memory brought them out of the roll and upright once more.

_ We are fine, Little One. I would not endanger you. _ Lance believed her, of course, but that didn’t stop him from pressing his worry at their bond. The gratitude that she pushed back was a flurry of soft looks from his fellow Paladins over their time together and it made his heart ache. He missed them so much. It didn’t distract him, however.

“What’s going on, Blue? You’ve  _ never  _ flown that rough before and you’ve taken some serious hits while I was piloting.” She didn’t answer, not right away. He knew she would explain, she always did if given enough time. He chewed a little on his bottom lip as he looked over the HUD, trying to find an answer while he waited for her to speak.

_ When we left you, it was because we had fulfilled our purpose. You no longer needed us. _ Lance surged upright in the pilot’s seat, about to object.  _ We thought we had upset your lives enough. It was time for you all to be your own beings again, and we were happy with everything we had achieved together. We ventured out our separate ways, making sure that the peace you had brought was solidifying all across the universe. _

It wasn’t what he asked, but Lance had so many burning questions inside him and this was one of them. He didn’t dare interrupt, especially when felt her hesitation as if she were right next to him, leaning over his shoulder with a breath caught in her throat. He held his own breath, too, afraid that all the questions bursting inside his mind would distract her from finishing her explanation.

_ We broke our bond to you, but promised ourselves to check on you. And then… _ Loss and grief and anguish washed over Lance, so great that it burned through his mind. The loss of Allura, Keith leaving, all the people who they’d met who died during the resistance… it was nothing compared to what his mind tried to comprehend now.  _ They were torn from me, Little One. And I cannot find them alone. I need you. Together, we can find our Pride. _

Lance would never say it wasn’t nice to feel needed. He had a lot of love to give and no one who wanted it. (Family aside, because  _ family _ .) He’d found a connection with the Paladins, with his  _ friends _ , but when the bonds had broken they had drifted apart despite him fighting hard to keep them together. 

But this was A Lot to take in right now and he still wasn’t Okay about the bonds breaking in the first place. Also, her explanation told him absolutely nothing about why she was flying rough. There were even warnings on the far, far side of the HUD, like she was trying to hide them from him so he wouldn’t notice and worry.

Frustration flooded him. “I know exactly what it’s like to lose your Pride.” He wanted to sound angry but it was messily tangled up with grief. “You took them from me.” Her shock was like ice sliding along his back and he shook himself a little to dismiss it. “Blue, you all left us and severed your bonds not just to us, but to each other.” They’d flown away so fast that the bond had just snapped and left a void within them all. It had hurt. It  _ still _ hurt. 

“We’d felt each other in our minds for  _ years _ and we were closer than family, and  _ you took that from us. _ ” His voice broke and he swallowed hard, his hands starting to shake on the HOTAS. It didn’t mess with Blue’s trajectory out into the solar system but he still pulled them back into his lap, twisting his gloved fingers together. “I-I tried,  _ so hard _ , to keep them but we’ve just… I fought tooth and nail and they  _ left _ me.” He sucked in a shuddering breath as his words ran faster and almost ran together. “You  _ all _ left me and every year I see them and they’re all fine, like it doesn’t even matter. Like  _ I don’t _ _ — _ _ ” _ He cut himself off, hands clapping loudly over his mouth in the sudden silence in the cockpit. They’d all abandoned him. He was always the one to reach out first. They’d been almost in each other’s back pockets for so long and once the Lions were gone suddenly all that was nothing to them?

_ Lance. _ Blue rarely used his name, and the fact that it almost sounded like Allura just made him hunch up more. He pulled his heels up onto the seat and wrapped his arms around his legs, trying to be as small as possible. It wasn’t hard in the vastness of space. He couldn’t push his face into his knees because of the helmet, but he didn’t dare take it off, either.  _ Little One, I’m so sorry. You had no warning and no knowledge of the gifts you possess. It has made the severance hard on you. _

Lance stubbornly didn’t reply. Questions. He had so many questions and every time she spoke he seemed to collect more. They burned in his throat but he swallowed them down. He knew that Blue would wait him out, but he could wait her out, too. He felt her offered comfort slide over him, a peace offering like a warm blanket. He sniffled and tried to wipe at the tears under the visor. It was awkward. 

_ I wanted her to tell you. I thought it would be easier, coming from her. But time ran out and then… We’d thought that maybe because our duties were complete that your gift returned to dormancy. We were wrong, and because of that, you were greatly hurt. _ Blue’s emotions pulled up an array of memories that make him hurt in different ways and they’re all so quick that he couldn’t focus on any of them.

“Tell me what?” He asked, sounding small and miserable.

_ Many things. Things that she didn’t even know until she had no time to tell them.  _ If Blue could sigh, he’s sure he would feel it then. Blue’s emotions were so strong to him that he could imagine her as a being beside him, hands behind their back and shuffling awkwardly as they avoided his eyes.  _ The strength of that bond between the Paladins was because of  _ **_you_ ** _ , Little One. Each Paladin has a connection with their Lion, yes, and we Lions are connected together as a Pride. You, Little One, are Lion Touched. _ There was a reverence to her tone that made him shiver.  _ You connected to all the other Paladins through your ability to connect to all of the Lions. The First Paladins were never so well bonded and in sync with each other as you were. _

Lion Touched? He lifted his head, touching the mark under the right eye. Why had he never heard of that? With all Allura and Coran’s knowledge, surely they had heard of Lion Touched. The Lions were old, wise, but they had been created. They weren’t omniscient. So what the hell was all this?

“Did you tell… Allura? About me being Lion Touched? Or… or did she know?” He thought she told them everything, she had always been so open with the knowledge that she had. The Paladins all had their own strengths and worked best when they were honest and laid all their cards out on the table.

_ She knew.  _ Blue’s voice was the lightest whisper through his mind, remorseful.  _ But they knew little of what abilities you would have or how to strengthen them. The whole ordeal was stressful enough, she did not wish to trouble you greater. _

Lance’s gut churned. What else had she kept from him? He felt like he would have benefitted from any kind of knowledge on this and not being blindsided now about it. Now that he had this information swirling in his mind? He felt sick and lost and a little bit betrayed. Slowly, he uncurled himself and set his feet back to the ground. “So… I’ve got this… Lion Space Magic or something?” He winced, his nose wrinkling a little as he said it.

Blue’s laugh rumbled through him and he found himself leaning back in the chair with a crooked smile.  _ Or something, Little One. You are finely attuned to us. Of all beings who were our Paladins, you are the closest to being a member of our Pride.  _ Feeling wanted had nothing on the surge of family and belonging that came with Blue’s words.  _ No other Chosen was Lion Touched. _

Lance’s stomach flipped. “Ch-Chosen?” Why did that sound painfully familiar?

_ Do you remember Allura and Lotor going to Oriande? How their marks glowed on their cheeks, showing that they were Chosen by the White Lion and allowed passage? _

“...oh.” That was definitely a squeal. Shit. He cleared his throat and pressed a hand to his stomach, trying to breathe deep with his diaphragm and keep the panic at bay. “So then I’m Chosen? And Lion Touched?” The marks had faded back to their normal blue, but they had absolutely glowed that night, and a few other times before.

_ This is why I need you.  _ It wasn’t as reassuring as Lance had hoped it would be. _ I can’t sense my Pride,  _ **_our_ ** _ Pride, anymore. I hope to train you, so that you may find them and we can save them together. _

Lance nodded, nerves about the unknown twisting his insides. “Yeah, sure, why not?” It came out much higher than intended and he cleared his throat. “What’s the worst that could happen?”


	4. Pit Stop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A stop on Mars for a checkup.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally some Keith! He’s who you’re really here for, I’m sure.

They made it to Mars before Lance had insisted that they touch down and let him look at what made Blue ride so rough. He conducted an internal search from the cockpit and down through her body, also taking the time to look over supplies. (And he also ate the tamale he brought with him. It was just as tasty cold as it was fresh and hot.) He found the standard repair kit and hauled it around with him, wanting to make sure he had the tools he needed with him in case he found anything.

Nothing inside that he was able to walk into showed any damages, so he needed to check outside. He palmed at his helmet to engage the full face shield and headed for the chest access. He passed the core room on his way to it and paused, just listening to the thrum and how it nearly sounded like purring. He had fallen asleep to the sound of it multiple times over the years and it was nice to hear it again. He continued on and jumped out onto the surface of Mars, the lesser gravity not quite floating him to the surface. Eh, that's what years of gymnastics were for.

Lance still felt some of the cold through his armor and as he looked toward Earth, he shivered. He’d only been gone two hours but he was already so far away from home and he was about to go even further. He’d been lonely on Earth, but now being here with all other humans so far away? He felt even more alone. He took a steadying breath and engaged the jetpack to give Blue a thorough comb-over.

_ I have completed a self-scan and there seems to be something pushing out my rear leg thigh panels. _

“On it.” Lance jumped and boosted, heading for her left leg first. “Why didn’t you complete diagnostics sooner?” 

_ Even if I had, I am unable to repair it myself. It made the most sense to get to you first. _ Okay, fair. But he could have tried repairing her on Earth instead of in outer space. Or even the Moon, although the greater gravity (relative to said Moon) on Mars was appreciated.

“You better tell me right away next time, Blue. We’re a team. You’re all I have out here.” Lance admonished. He headed for her back left leg at first, and upon close inspection, there were some panels that looked like they had been lifted but not bent, which would have caused the drag. He pulled out a light from the tool kit to peer in around the raised panels to see if there was some kind of obstruction.

Inside were writhing, night black vines that glistened under the light. He recoiled, a strangled gasp in his throat. A vine lunged for him and he kicked away with a yelp. “Oh shit!” He scrabbled at the pack swinging at his side for a laser torch. Maybe he could burn all the vines out? “Blue… there’s these  _ vines _ in your leg. They’re just like my dream…”

Blue’s silence scared him, but she pushed calm and reassurance over their bond so hard that he could almost feel Shiro’s hand gripping his shoulder. He steered himself back toward the opening, the torch in both hands straight out in front. “This won’t hurt you, will it? Burning them out?”

_ There are no components that will sustain damage from your torch in my legs, Little One.  _

“But… will it hurt?” He knew the Lions could feel pain, although his connection had never been so strong that he’d felt it as his own. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her, but they both knew that this had to be done either way, so he didn’t wait for her to respond. Once he was close enough to slip the tip of the torch into the opening, he pulled down hard on the trigger. 

Lance bit down a scream when the flame lit up all the twisting vines and thorns inside the cavity. Just seeing them brought back memories of his very recent nightmare and he bit his lip as he burned them from the opening in Blue’s leg. They shone purple and pink at their brightest burn points and it almost looked familiar with how it writhed as if in pain. His stomach lurched and he pulled harder on the trigger, needing this to be over soon. 

As the vines died, their writhing slowed with a crackle that Lance swore he could feel in his throat. He kept going, burning up a whole section and watching it cool, pinkish embers winking at him. Ever so slowly he reached in, his eyes flicking between all the thorns to make sure there was no movement, and pulled out the remains. The thorns broke away into ashy dust, but the vines themselves were brittle hunks of charcoal. The glistening whatever had cooked and hardened into something sharp and brittle.

There were more sections to clear out and he needed to be very thorough. Every section he completed, he made sure to sweep out the ash into the vacuum of space. He didn’t dare leave even the tiniest smudge behind. Who knew what it could do? As he cleared everything out, he closed up panels until Blue was as sleek as she had always been. Seeing those things had left him visibly shaken and he retreated back inside of Blue, hoping to head out and put distance between him and this new, horrible memory.

_ You did an exemplary job, Little One. I feel much better. _ He sagged in the pilot’s chair and pulled off the helmet. He breathed deep but… the scent of Allura had faded. Or maybe it had just been his imagination. 

“Thanks, Blue. Let’s go.” He didn’t even ask where they were headed. He felt that he knew exactly where she needed to take him to train him. Where else but Altea? But that meant reaching out to the others again. Or, at least to Coran. His gut clenched with anxiety. After the bond broke, it had been painfully clear that the Paladins had started to drift apart. Lance had tried to keep in contact with everyone. Everyone had new, exciting lives. They were too busy, and they had rarely reached out to him first. How was he going to do this?

_ ‘Promise me you’ll call if you’re about to do something monumentally stupid.’ _ Keith. He’d said that every single time they parted since… so maybe now was that time. Maybe Keith would pick up instead of Lance having to leave a message. He took a soothing breath and straightened in his seat.

“I’m going to call Keith.” He told Blue, already making up his mind. He’d just have to go get his tablet, and probably charge it so he had some time to figure out what to— A screen popped up on the HUD to his left, a still of Keith on the screen as five colored dots swirled underneath. He looked so young then, and he was scowling in the most endearing way…

And then Lance realized that Blue was calling Keith for him. And then Keith  _ picked up _ . Keith… looked unfairly good. He seemed to be in some kind of lounge area, but it could be a communal space or his own. His hair was longer, spilling over his shoulder from a low ponytail like an inky waterfall. “Lance? Hey, long time no see.”

There was something so soft in how Keith had said ‘hey’. Lance swallowed the lump in his throat, not sure when it had gotten there. “Hey man, how’s it going?” This was a perfectly normal call between two buds who hadn’t seen each other in nearly a year, no big deal. Lance even managed to keep his voice pretty even.

“Pretty well, I’ve been kept pretty busy.” Keith winced a little and even looked a little guilty. “Sorry I never managed to call you back.”

Lance waved him off with a smile that didn’t feel quite right but he kept it plastered to his face. “It’s fine, really! You’re a busy man. I’m sure if you’re not off saving lives then your mom and Kolivan are stealing you away for something.” He hadn’t dared meet Keith’s eyes yet. He knew that Keith could read him too well. After Allura… well, Keith had checked on Lance often. They’d talked a lot. And as he had gotten better, Keith had gotten busier and…

“That’s about right.” He chuckled but a tiny furrow of concern was wrinkling his brow. “Lance? Are you… uh, are you on Earth?”

Oh man, he was stuck. Lance hadn’t been able to lie to Keith in ages. “C’mon, buddy, where else…” He trailed off and glanced up, his gaze stolen and held by dark grey eyes. “Uh, so, y’know when you made me promise—repeatedly, mind you—that I’d, uh, call? Like when I made a,” he paused and did jazz hands, “drastic choice?”

“You mean  _ before _ you did something monumentally stupid?” Keith asked, tone dry.

Lance bristled and sat up a little straighter. “Hey! Those might have been the words you used but this is more of… of a change in career than something  _ stupid _ .”

“Uh-huh.” Keith leaned closer to the screen on his end, his gaze going suddenly very intense before he leaned back in surprise. “What the fuck, are you on the  _ Blue Lion _ right now?!”

“Pfft, what? No. Why would you even—“ Okay, that look was sharp enough to pin him in his seat. “Okay, fine,  _ yes _ . Blue came to get me. The other Lions are missing and she needs my help.” He rubbed the back of his neck, looking a little sheepish. “It’s kind of a long story?” The look on Keith’s face clearly said that he had all the time in the world for it. “So, uh, the Lions all have this really strong bond and they can always feel each other, right? Well, Blue can’t feel  _ any _ of them right now. And apparently, I’m like, special? But also our Paladin bond wasn’t because we were hella awesome, it was because  _ apparently _ I’m Lion Touched and my bond was so strong to all of the Lions that I bonded to all of you through them and when they left I wasn’t strong enough to keep us all together.”

“Oh, wow, that’s a lot.” Thank fuck, Keith agreed with him. It was a lot and honestly it’s pretty amazing that Lance hadn’t had a panic attack yet over the whole crazy situation.

“Right? And now we’re headed to Altea so she can train me so we can find the other Lions together.” He sagged into his seat a little, finally relaxing now that the cat’s fully out of the bag.

“Where are you now?” Keith was looking at something on the tablet they were having this call through, his eyes angled downward to the screen.

“Uh…? I’m on Mars, actually. Had to make a pit stop.” Another even longer story that he didn’t really want to get into right now. “We were just about to head out but, y’know, I’m a keep-my-promises kinda guy.”

Keith hummed and looked up. “I’ll meet you there.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I’m coming to Altea. I’ll meet you there.”

“Nuh-uh, you’re not inviting yourself on my mission. It’s  _ my  _ mission!”

“What are you going to do when you recover a Lion, pilot it yourself?”

“Wh-I don’t know! I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”

“Exactly why I’m coming. I’ll see you on Altea, Lance.” Keith flashed him a grin, one that stuck Lance’s tongue to the roof of his mouth for some reason. The call ended before he could form any kind of argument.

“Well… okay then.” Lance sighed and reached back out to the HOTAS. “And Blue? Maybe next time don’t call people before I’m ready to call them?”

_ If I had not intervened, would you have been ready? _

Lance elected not to answer that. He could already feel the bubbling laughter from Blue as he pulled back on the controls and they launched off into the stars.


	5. Landing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance arrives on Altea.

Lance and Blue had just made it out of the Milky Way when another call popped up on the HUD. This time, Blue magnanimously let Lance answer it on his own, letting him take a deep breath. “Hey, Coran, what’s up?” He gave the vidlink a winning smile and really hoped he wasn’t in for a lecture like his mama was sure to give once she woke up.

“Lance, my boy! A little duflax quackered to me that you’re headed to Altea.” He at least looked pleased that Lance was on his way, which was… good. Coran was like a quirky uncle and although sometimes best in small doses, he had missed his odd stories and unending energy.

“You mean Keith.” Lance sighed. Keith couldn’t even trust him to call Coran and let him know that he was coming himself? (Like, yes, he was going to procrastinate on it because hey, the flight to Altea without a teludav portal would be at least a week.)

“Yes, actually! He thought it might be nice if we popped up an ol’ teludav portal for ya, instead of how you Earthlings say, ‘hoofing it’?” Coran looked very proud of himself when Lance gave him a thumbs up for getting the saying correct. 

“That would be really nice, actually. I, uh, I actually have some questions for you. And news. Pretty… pretty big news, actually.” Oh boy, this was more awkward than when he went to the Altean for  _ courting advice _ . “I don’t really want to go into detail, uh, right now, but I need you to know one important thing—“

“That you’re piloting the Blue Lion?”

_ “Keith.” _ Lance bit out. How much had he just  _ blurted _ to Coran? Did he have so little faith in Lance’s ability to speak that he had to do everything for him? Just because he was rusty and hadn’t been in combat for like, five-ish years didn’t mean he couldn’t do anything! He was so going to have it out with him on Altea. First, he invited himself along on Lance’s quest and now this?

“That’s right! And Hunk called me this morning, so now I’m starting to wonder if I’ll get the full suit calling me before the day’s out!” Lance felt a little guilty about how excited Coran was that people had been calling him. He hadn’t put in the same efforts keeping in contact with Coran as he had with the others. And that Hunk had called Coran today but not him stung. (Of course, it was probably for diplomatic reasons but it didn’t stop Lance from being at least a little bitter.)

“Maybe.” Lance rubbed idly at the mark on his right cheekbone before clearing his throat. “I can send you my coordinates if you do want to warm up the teludav, Coran, I won’t say no to a shortcut.” He didn’t know how to explain the Blue Lion’s presence to whomever saw him but hopefully someone else would be taking care of that while he was learning everything he needed to so he could find whatever Lion was closest.

“Coming right up, lad!” Coran smiled, eyes sparkling. “I’ll see you when you’re through!” He hung up, the screen freezing on his exuberant grin. It made Lance feel even more guilty for not trying to visit Altea more than once a year. Coran might be an Adult (capital letter A required because Lance was also technically an adult but sure as hell didn’t feel like it) but he was still a friend. Or maybe extended family, like a weird uncle, or cousin that you’re fairly sure is related to you but you’re not sure how.

The wormhole appeared before them and maybe it was because it was so quiet or maybe it was because of how much stronger his connection was with Blue now that his… Lion Touch-ed-ness was awake but he could hear it. The wormhole positively sang to him in a way nothing had before. He frowned in thought even as he pushed the controls forward and they shot through. 

The view of Altea from space would never not be breathtaking. He’d spent nearly six months here after the universe (multiverse?) was saved. He’d always been the loudest for wanting to go home but as soon as the opportunity had presented itself… Well, he’d been in mourning at the time. He’d put all his efforts into the juniberry flowers and working with Pidge’s mother to breed them to survive on Earth, so he could take some part of Allura home with him.

Coming back was always difficult, but always worth it. And the view of it through Blue’s eyes when he closed his own was even better. He was tempted to just… do a lap of the entire planet. It was always hard to land, it made being here without her all the more real. Lance liked to lie to himself, convince himself that he was over her 100% when really he’d just hidden like a dog licking at their wounds.

It was just him and Blue, so he didn’t feel the pressure to make a joke. To say something about first love and fake-laugh it off. Allura hadn’t been his first love, but she’d been the only one that had reciprocated. That was something. He breathed deep and finally opened his eyes to look over the planet through his own senses.

_ It feels like home. _ Blue’s words were slow, thoughtful.

“Did it always feel that way?” Lance asked, curious. The Lions had been created by Alfor, so they probably considered Altea home. She didn’t respond but there was a noncommittal hum through her systems that he took as her acceptance. 

They headed for the Garden of Lions, at the center of the capital city. It was massive, sprawling and it looked like it had somehow gotten bigger since he was last here. Allura’s statue was at the main entrance of it, and the five diases that the Lions had sat upon before they left. Lance guided her to land on her dias, surprised when it lit up at her landing. He raised an eyebrow and chuckled when Blue’s response was an impression of a shrug in his mind. He stood from the pilot’s seat after Blue pulled it away from the controls for him. She crouched and opened her mouth, allowing him to exit and meet Coran who was excitedly jogging his way.

“Lance, it’s like you’ve walked off the pages of my memoir.” Lance felt like he was eighteen again seeing Coran while in his armor, the presence of Blue warm behind him. Between one blink and the next, he was wrapped up in a warm hug and found that his throat was tight.

He squeezed Coran as tightly as he dared. “I didn’t know you were writing a memoir, Coran.”

“Oh, yes, I thought I’d give it a go.” He pulled away, his hands in constant movement as he talked. “My mind’s still sharp as a tack now, and I’ve over 600 deca-phoebs to share with the universe.” He still looked early-middle-aged to Lance, so who knew how many more years he’d have to live despite the 10,000 year nap.

“I’m more of an audial person, so I hope you’re planning on recording yourself reading it aloud.” Coran always had so much energy and depth when he told stories, it was very engaging—even for a teenager with unmedicated ADHD. (It’s not like you could just get  _ refills _ in space.)

Coran’s face lit up and Lance couldn’t help but grin. “What an excellent idea! I’ll have to do that, yes, yes.” He cleared his throat and tugged on the bottom hem of his jacket. “Now, pleasantries must wait. You’re here for a reason, correct?”

Lance’s smile quirked up into a lopsided grin. “Blue’s giving you a hard stare behind my back, isn’t she?”

“Too right.” They shared a chuckle.

“Let’s go for a walk Coran, I’d really like to stretch my legs, and I don’t think this is a middle-of-a-courtyard conversation.” They headed off into the Garden and Lance explained everything that he could think of, their heads bowed together a little. At some point in his years away, he’d grown taller than the Altean. It was an odd feeling.

“I wonder if Allura would have been able to sense them.” Shock colored Coran’s face, he hadn’t meant to say it. He clapped Lance on the shoulder and shook him the tiniest bit. “But, it seems like that is your gift, this time.”

Lance hummed, staring at the fine white gravel underfoot. “I just have to learn how. I should get back to Blue and start on my training. Is my old room still free? I might have to hang around for a while.”

Coran pulled Lance in for a side-hug. “Lance, my lad, I wouldn’t have you stay anywhere else. If I don’t see you at dinner, I’ll send Romelle to wake you.” Certain that Coran could see how tired he was, Lance didn’t doubt that someone would come and drag him to dinner. It just depended on if he’d be out here still or in bed.

“Thanks, Coran.” He watched the Altean depart through the Garden trails, happily humming. He turned back the way they came to where Blue sat. It was nice to take his time strolling through the plants this time as he hadn’t been paying too much attention as they were talking before. There were juniberry variants all around him, ones he’d bred himself and others that had come from different crossbreeds.

Once out of the garden, he headed over to Blue, who had curled up on her dias. It looked incredibly lonely without the other Lions but that was what he was here to remedy. He stopped in front of her nose and he put a hand on his hip, the other dangling from where he had his helmet pinned to his side with his arm. He cocked his hip and grinned up at Blue. “Let’s find our Pride, Blue. Time to have a family reunion.” Her purr rumbled through him and the entire courtyard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has left comments! They really mean so much to me and help me keep writing this story. I don’t usually do chaptered fics, as I worry that I’ll lose my motivation before I see it to the end.


	6. Reunited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance hadn't seen Keith in person in nearly a year.

Lance woke slowly when someone disrupted the warm late afternoon sun shining on him. Legs crossed in a tailor’s seat, with his helmet in his lap, he’d slumped back against Blue’s nose. He rubbed at his jaw, sore from resting on the raised collar of his armor for so long. He blinked sleepily up at his sunlight blocker and squinted. It took longer than he’d like to admit to recognize the individual who was looking down at him with the softest little smile quirking their lips. The look screamed ‘you good, dude?’

Lance opened his mouth for a totally witty retort when a very large space wolf _bamph_ ’d in front of him, their nose nearly touching his. A startled ‘eep!’ escaped him just before large paws made some _very_ near misses as Kosmo tried to curl up and sit in Lance’s lap, the Paladin’s helmet rolling away to the side. The wolf had grown even bigger since last Lance saw him, and a whole hell of a lot heavier. Kosmo settled with a satisfied groan, his head on Lance’s shoulder, nose pressing against Blue’s. Lance sighed and just barely heard the suppressed snort over the thumps of a happy tail. Keith would probably hurt himself keeping his laughter in.

“You jackass, you stole my thunder.” He flailed his arms at Keith’s legs, not surprised at the chuckle and effortless dodge. It wasn’t like he could do much while pinned under a very snuggly wolf. Keith didn’t say anything and when Lance properly looked up, he saw him staring up at Blue with an ache in his eyes that Lance recognized well. He cleared his throat louder than necessary. “You gonna help me up?” He gestured at his very occupied lap. And chest. And pretty much his whole body except his arms and head.

Keith snorted, and made a clicking sound with his tongue that got Kosmo to perk up. He looked over at Keith, nuzzled more into Lance’s shoulder and sighed. Life was so hard for him. Humans. Wanting him to move. Keith jerked his head and Kosmo finally got up. He stretched exaggeratedly.

Lance drew a few dramatic breaths and got a wagging tail to his face for his efforts. He offered up his hands for Keith’s help. A warm gloved hand found one of his own and yanked Lance to his feet. Lance yelped and had to catch himself with a hand on Keith’s chest so their heads didn’t slam together. Once he had his feet under him, he shoved Keith hard, laughing when Keith stumbled back with a smothered laugh. “How did I steal your thunder _this_ time?” Keith asked. Kosmo’s head was even with the edge of Keith’s armor at his ribs. He’d gotten _big_.

Lance scoffed and shook his head. “You told Coran! _I_ was going to tell Coran. It was _my_ story to tell!” Keith looked a little sheepish and a hand found Kosomo’s ears as the wolf immediately went to nuzzle and comfort him. Lance didn’t let it stay for long, already tugging Keith back in with their still-joined hands. It felt really good to hug Keith. Of course, it was probably just because he’d been missing their bond ever since it broke. Plus, Lance had always been a pretty tactile guy. Best hugger out of all the Paladins, past, present, and future. 

Kosmo shoved his head between their stomachs and Lance chuckled as he had to shift back but still held Keith as best as he could with the canine between them. It was so hard not to break away as an insistent nose was shoving up between their chest plates. Kosmo wanted in on the hug, too.

“I was helping.” Keith crumbled under the dark look Lance shot him and finally stepped back from the hug. Smart move. Lance might just swipe at him again. Kosmo sat abruptly and leaned heavily on Lance, eyes focused on him and snuffling at his chest while looking for attention. Ah, it was nice to be missed.

“Helping my ass.” He knew how that sounded the moment he said it and stabbed a finger at the smirking Blade. “Don’t start, mister.” His other hand was already buried into the ruff of Kosmo’s neck and happy wolf whines filled the brief silence between them.

Keith’s grin was full of mischief and it made Lance’s chest ache. Not for simpler times because their ‘old times’ were very, very far from simple. His life since then? Now _that_ had been simple. Until last night. No, it ached for how their friendship had been, for when the bond still held them close. “You look good.” Keith’s words pulled Lance from his introspective turn and back to the living, breathing person in front of him. It must be that the sun was just starting to set, because Lance could swear that there was a pink tinge to Keith’s face.

“Hm?” He blinked, trying to bring up what had just been said. Blue pressed the scene from her eyes into his mind with a cheeky chuff that washed over them both and Lance fought down a blush. His hand paused in Kosmo’s fur and the wolf nosed at his ribs lightly. “Uh, thanks. You too.” The updated Blade of Marmora gear looked unfairly good on Keith, accompanied with the face and the low ponytail and Keith’s, well, _everything_. 

Dangerous thoughts, McClain. He cleared his throat and looked away toward the castle. “You call anyone else and blab about my early-twenties crisis?”

Keith rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled. “Not quite, should I have?”

 _Your flirting has certainly changed styles since last we were together, Little One._ Her mirth rumbled through him and he whipped around and pointed up at the massive Blue Lion. Kosmo had to catch himself since he’d been leaning on Lance so heavily at the petting and if he wasn’t so fired up about what Blue had said, he would’ve felt bad.

“Hey, hey, _no_ . Absolutely not. Do not start that again.” Him, flirting? With Keith? Fuck no. No, he was _absolutely_ over Keith Kogane. There was no more school boy crush in his entire goddamn body. She had teased him enough about it when he first became her Paladin. Just because this was round two didn’t mean he wanted a repeat of everything that had happened at their beginning.

“What?” Lance looked over at Keith, confusion pulling his eyebrows together. “You… Can you talk to her? Like, not just _feelings_ but actual words?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Kosmo looked to Keith, back to Lance, and to Keith again. “...yeah?” Lance drew the word out slowly, also confused. “Couldn’t you do the same with Red when you were her Paladin?”

Keith shook his head. “Not even with Black.”

“Oh.” Lance ran a hand through his hair, tugging at the slight curls. “Huh. Well then, I guess that explains all the times Red bitched about you being a reckless kit. You sure as _hell_ didn’t listen to her.”

The affronted noise Keith made was probably the best sound Lance had heard in months (if you didn’t include Blue’s purr because he had missed that like a flower missed the sun). “She did _not_.” Kosmo hopped a little next to him, clearly taking his side.

“Excuse me, who is the Lion Touched here? If you’re just gonna drop in my lap that none of you were able to talk to your Lions while I had both Blue and Red talking straight into my head for _most_ of our time in space, then shouldn’t _I_ be the authority here?” He crossed his arms over his chest and didn’t even try to hide how smug he was about this. “Red was _constantly_ grumbling about her reckless kitten, which is _you_ ,” he pointed at Keith with a giant smirk on his face, “by the way.” Man, this was the best goddamn thing that’s happened to him today.

Keith’s embarrassed, spluttering retort was cut off by Romelle appearing in the nearest doorway into the castle, having been on her way to collect Lance for dinner. Lance heard the relieved sigh and snorted, turning toward Romelle.

She quickly made her way over and Lance scooped her up, spinning her with a bright grin on his face. They hadn’t gotten close until his six month stay on Altea, but he’d like to say that they were friends now. She had been good company for when he didn’t want to be alone (which had been most of his stay. What could he say? He was from a big family and comfort was found in other people and not solitude). They would have to find some time to catch up.

Romelle linked their arms and tugged him toward the open doorway. “I hope you brought your appetite. Hunk’s influence has really improved the meal options around here.”

“Honestly, I would eat a plate full of food goo at this point. I haven’t eaten all day.” He’s fairly sure it had been at least twenty-four earth hours by now since he left. Maybe even longer. He didn’t hear Keith follow them, but Kosmo’s nails clicked on the stone floor behind them and he glanced over his shoulder to peek at them. He caught Keith’s eye and beamed at him, smiling wider when Keith smiled back.

“And after dinner, it’s time to talk logistics!” Coran piped up, making Lance damn near jump out of his armor. He flailed but managed to at least get Romelle behind him and his bayard materialized in his hand, bringing with it a shining, blue energy shield so very different than the one that was built into the Paladin armor. This one was broad and curved to protect more than one person at a time, and in the center was a stylized, snarling Blue Lion head. The intersecting lines looked like rippling eddies, making the shield hum threateningly as well as look like swirling water.

Kosmo _bamph_ ’d Keith back before either knew what was happening or what the threat was. They both were on edge, ready to fight but there wasn’t anyone _to_ fight. Coran’s hands had snapped up to show that he was unarmed but he was largely unphased and starting to lean in to inspect the shield.

“Well! I have never seen a bayard shield like that before!” He reached out to touch it but yanked his hand back with the lion motif made to bite him. _“Fascinating.”_

“Neither have I.” Lance’s voice was high, and he heard Keith echoing the same words from where he stood behind him. It took more focus to dismiss the shield than his usual bayard weapon, but it was probably just because he was exhausted and his heart was still racing from being startled. He hooked the bayard on his belt, not remembering if it had been there, or even reaching for it. “So, uh, dinner?”

A pause followed his sheepish question, but time unstuck itself and everyone continued down the hall together to go eat. Lance let the good food and friendly chatter of castle staff and his friends wash over him, the stresses of his day slowly washing away. For now.


	7. Awoken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This time, when nightmares threaten to drag Lance under, Keith is there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I practically re-wrote the entire second half of the chapter. I've saved it, and I'll post it eventually as a deleted scene. If I do that often enough, I'll make a side 'story' of the deleted scenes.

They settled in a small conference room. The table glowed softly, Coran’s fingers sliding across it to access a catalog. He expanded it a few times and dragged a few files with two fingers to flick them up onto holo screens that came to life as data lit up each display. “So, this is what I have. As you can see, it isn’t a lot. Mostly projected flight patterns from the trajectory the Lions originally took off in. I have estimated distances since the Lions didn’t start at top speed, however, I don’t know what their exact energy levels were at take-off.”

“And I really doubt any of them would have just flown in a straight line.” Keith remarked dryly, his chin in his hand. Kosmo had his face on the edge of the table, near Keith’s elbow. The wolf’s ears were perked up and paying close attention, as if he could understand the conversation. 

Lance leaned over the table and tapped the star map, drawing it up into the air before them. “I have rough coordinates but it wasn’t like the connection just snapped between Blue and the other Lions.” His hands moved, pulling the known map as he needed to manipulate it and place target points, color coded for each of the four missing Lions. “It… it felt like fading. Like when you and a friend are talking but you both really have to go so you just walk backwards facing each other until you can’t hear the other person. But at the same time she wasn’t even aware of the fading until they were all gone. 

“Or, no, that’s not right.” He ran a hand through his hair, messing up the loose curls and rubbing at his temple with the heel of his palm. “It was more like… sleep paralysis. You know it’s happening but you can’t make yourself react. She didn’t even know she was infested by those… vine things until it was nearly too late. That’s when she came for me.” 

“Vines?” Keith asked, curious. “So what we’re fighting is organic?” 

“No idea, but they wriggle and have these wicked long thorns. I’ve been having nightmares about them for a while.” He swallowed, not a fan of even thinking about it. His dream last night (was it last night? It felt like so long ago already) had been the most realistic one yet, and that was terrifying. How would his nightmares worsen the next time he slept? “They burned under a laser torch and the flames were purple and pink. Felt like normal charcoal but there was a resistance to them. Some bit of stretch and durability. Made removal a real pain.” 

“Does Blue have any recollection of where she was when she was attacked? Logs and coordinates maybe?” Coran asked, intrigued by the seemingly organic assailant.

“None, it was like she was offline when it happened, but somehow she was able to drag herself out of it. There’s just a hole in her memory, all of it that she’s shared with me.” She could access his memories so easily but hers were so much more overwhelming to him, with all the sensory data she took in at all times. He wasn’t able to just waltz through her mind like he allowed her to run through his. 

"So how do we even find Red? Or any of the other Lions? We can try going to your projected locations, Coran, but there’s no promise that this isn’t just some… Narunne chase.” Lance gave him a look that he hoped conveyed ‘what the heck is a narunne’ but Keith’s response-face was unintelligible. They’d never had the chance to perfect non-verbal communication, not like Keith had with Shiro, or with Krolia. 

“Blue hopes there’s some deep lore, Lion Touched knowledge somewhere in the castle that might have the answer to that.” He looked hopefully at Coran who just shrugged. Lance’s shoulders sagged. “Otherwise, she’s going to teach me how to deepen our bond. Since I also had a bond with Red… we’re hoping I’ll be able to sense her. Give us a heading.” 

“It seems like we should leave the Lion wrangling to you, Lance. I can show you the libraries, and I will gladly help you stock up and pack for your trip once we know how long it’ll take for you to get there.” A wormhole would help, but it really depended on if Lance could tell where they needed to go beyond a general direction. 

Lance tried to stifle a yawn, his jaw cracking as he did so. “In the morning? It’s been a really long day for me, and I’m not used to quintants anymore. I’ve been spoiled by earth days for too long.” The other two nodded to him and he stood to leave, only needing to orient himself after he left. He still knew where his room was, and he was nearly halfway there when he noticed Kosmo happily trotting along beside him. 

“Hey, bud, you gonna keep ol’ Lancey Lance company? Keith’s gonna miss you, I bet you’re an excellent space heater.” He snorted, making himself laugh. Space heater, hah. Space space heater, maybe. He navigated the winding halls and up far too many stairs before stepping into a small suite. The windows overlooked the Garden and he could see the faint glowing markings of Blue, curled up on her dias. 

He closed his eyes. _Goodnight, Blue._ He wondered if it worked, if she heard him.

_Goodnight, Little One._ Her words rolled through him like a gentle wave and he smiled softly for a moment before turning to remove his armor. The hard pieces were neatly laid out on top of the dresser, the under armour peeled off and tossed onto the chair. He flopped into the best bed he’d ever slept in in just his underwear, sighing happily when Kosmo climbed up and curled along his back. 

“Don’t drool on me, okay?” He mumbled sleepily as Kosmo tucked his nose between Lance’s neck and shoulder. Kosmo sighed and Lance drifted off to sleep. 

* * *

He heard screaming as he thrashed against the drag of the vines as they fought to pull him under the soil. Who was screaming? He had to get free, tear out of these vines and save them, he had to save them. His throat burned as the vines wrapped tighter in their attempt to choke him. 

“Lance!” Oh, god, that was Keith’s voice, was it Keith who was hurt? “Lance, _please._ ” He was trying, but the vines had him gripped tight and thorns were digging into his arms, pinning him to the ground. “Wake _up!”_

He startled awake, his throat burning in stripes and his nails dug into his collarbones. Kosmo was laying across his legs and Keith had his arms pinned against his chest, eyes wide and faintly glowing in the darkness. Lance sucked deep breaths, his eyes flicking over Keith’s face. He couldn’t see any of it, just the familiar golden glow of Keith’s eyes, bisected by slit pupils. Slowly, he relaxed into the bed, tense muscles loosening. As he did, Keith released his arms and Lance's fingers briefly wandered to the welts on his throat. He had been clawing at himself to get the vines off. Luckily he'd been stopped before he really hurt himself. They stung, sure, but he hadn’t drawn blood. 

Keith sat back, his hip pressed next to Lance's waist as he no longer needed to use his weight to pin him down. Keith's eyes wandered along his face and neck, checking him over, and flicking down at his chest briefly. Lance could only tell the direction of his gaze because his eyes still glowed. He reached out beside the bed and lightly touched the lamp, turning it on low. He could see, as his eyes adjusted, the worried pinch between Keith’s brows. 

Keith opened and closed his mouth a few times, unsure what to say. They just stared and breathed. Slowly, Keith calmed and his eyes shifted back to normal. He looked tense, almost like he was silently beating himself up over his lack of words. Lance had seen it on his face before, back when they weren’t friends and before he could read him as well as he could now. Kosmo moved off his legs and wriggled up the bed on his belly. The wolf’s ears were flat to his head. He whined as he pressed his cold nose to Lance’s hot and aching throat. 

“I’ll be okay, jus’ a nightmare.” Lance laid his hand atop Kosmo’s head and smiled when the wolf’s ears perked up a little bit. He certainly wasn’t okay now, but he would be. Eventually. He scritched at the white fur atop Kosmo’s head. 

Finally finding words, Keith started slowly. “Kosmo came and got me. You, uh, you were thrashing about.” He folded a leg up and hugged it to his chest, not looking at Lance directly. “Do… you get these nightmares a lot?” 

Lance shrugged a little and wrapped his arms around Kosmo, turning toward him and away from Keith. Just a little, not enough to be ignoring him. “Not two nights in a row,” he started slowly. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to talk about this at all, let alone with Keith. But he knew he should. It could come true. He shuddered at the thought. “This one didn’t even start out how it… how it usually does.” 

Keith didn’t respond for a long time. Lance glanced at him over his shoulder and discovered him having a staring contest with the wolf who had settled his big head on Lance’s shoulder. Kosmo had very good puppy dog eyes and Keith apparently knew it if the stubbornly set jaw and slightly pouting bottom lip said anything. “...why is Kosmo looking at you like that?” 

He hadn’t expected an almost dramatic knock back of Keith’s head as he sighed. “Kos wants me to snuggle him, too.” 

“Then come snuggle him, too.” Lance snorted and shrugged as best as he could with Kosmo’s head weighing him down. “Bed’s big enough.” And it wasn’t like this would be a new experience for them. They had slept in close quarters before. With the size of the bed, they wouldn’t even have to be that close. “And don’t ask _'are you sure?’_ Get your ass in bed and snuggle the dog.” 

Rather than argue, Keith carefully climbed across the foot of the bed and tucked himself under the covers on the other side of Kosmo. His eyes still glowed faintly as they flickered over to Lance’s now that they both laid on their sides facing each other. Kosmo’s tail beat the bed in a happy wag. 

“Do y’wanna…?” Keith began to mumble before turning his face into the pillow to half-hide. His hair was an inky halo across the pale pillow and Lance had trouble not staring. 

“If we’re gonna go on a possible save-the-world road trip together, I prob’ly should.” Lance dug his fingers into Kosmo’s ruff, the wolf grumbling happily about this development. It was slow, getting the words out. It wasn’t something he particularly enjoyed reliving while asleep, let alone awake. But he did it. He told Keith how it usually started, with their bond breaking and feeling so empty and lost. How he appeared in the field outside his home, but also sometimes on other planets they had visited before and others he didn’t recognize. The lights, the sense of needing to get to them and save them, and then… the vines grabbing him, tearing at him, piercing him. 

By the end, both he and Keith were snuggled close to Kosmo. His face was tucked into Kosmo’s neck, the wolf’s head lightly atop his, helping him hide. He’d curled up tightly and counted his breaths as Keith’s hand slid up and down his back slowly in pace with every inhale and exhale. Somewhere between a gentle squeeze to the back of his neck and that hand stroking down to his waist, Lance fell asleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one is later than my 5 days schedule. Your comments are definitely my fuel for this and I'm so grateful for every one. Hopefully I can get some writing done over the holiday weekend.


	8. Rekindled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In order to locate Red, Keith and Lance have to mend their own bond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's some kindling for the slow burn, my doves. I really hope you like this chapter and I hope to hear from you! <3

Lance never considered himself big on the research department (although he did enjoy reading fiction) which would surprise everyone considering the amount of data he’d read this last week. Pidge certainly wouldn’t believe it. He wouldn’t either if he hadn’t just done it. It helped that as he had deepened his bond with Blue, she was able to slip more easily into his mind and help him process all the information. It was like when he was young and he was reading aloud to his mama to show her all the big words he’d learned.

He still hadn’t found any of the answers he was looking for.

His skill for meditation grew slowly. He fell asleep a lot less now. Blue slowly shared her vast memory with him. She wanted to ease him into the overwhelming amount of sensory data that she experienced, knowing that human senses weren’t as acute. They were as close as they could be, but Lance still couldn’t feel Red. He flopped back from where he’d been sitting atop Blue’s head. His dramatic sigh cut short when he slid off her head. Lucky for him, she reached up a paw and kept him from crashing to the ground head first.

The sound of Kosmo teleporting alerted him to Keith’s appearance. He stumbled down from Blue’s paw, smiling fondly when Kosmo trotted up to him to get pets. “Graceful.” Keith always had the best dry sarcasm voice.

“You should see me dance.” He winked. Keith seemed to freeze for a second but then walked toward him, his hands twitching like he either wanted to strangle Lance or he didn’t know what to do with them. He figured it was ‘strangle’. “What’s up?”

“Just… checking in.” Keith rubbed the back of his neck, messing up his low ponytail a little. It had been a while since they’d last talked. Well, okay, it had been nearly a whole Altean day which was nothing compared to how long they’d gone without talking before but now that they’d been seeing each other daily...

“I just…” Lance sighed explosively and crossed his arms across his chest. “I can’t get it. It’s been so long since I’ve felt her, and I…” His shoulders sagged and he hung his head. “I can’t find her. How am I supposed to have any hope in finding the others when I can’t sense Red?”

Keith frowned, thinking. “What’s your focus?” His gaze was sharp when he met Lance’s eyes. It held the intensity that Keith just had when he was trying to solve a problem he had pieces of.

“My focus?” Lance’s eyebrows furrowed together and he broke their eye contact.

“Yes. You’re not just trying to clear your mind, you’re working toward a specific goal. You need something to focus on, to guide you where you’re trying to go.”

Lance frowned and tugged at his curling hair, almost glad that it was long enough to do so. A focus. What could he use to focus on Red and her energy signature enough that he could find her? “You!” He hopped down from the dias and reached out to grab his arm. “C’mon, you’re going to meditate with me.”

Keith’s eyes flew wide as Lance began to drag him. “I-I don’t…”

“No, seriously, this should work. We both were bonded with her, and we both bonded to each other, too. I’ll focus on you and by extension Red, you’ll focus on me and Red, and we’ll see what happens.” He stopped on the dias and tugged him down to sit at Blue’s feet with him. The Lion curled around them and watched curiously.

_This… might have some promise._ There was a lilt of amusement in Blue’s voice that Lance outright ignored as his cheeks warmed. 

“See? Blue agrees.”

“I can’t hear her—”

“Enough excuses.” He grabbed Keith’s gloved hand. “Take these off. Skin contact will be important.” Surprisingly, Keith obeyed silently, pulling off his gloves and tucking them into his belt. Lance tucked his crossed legs close to himself and scooted toward Keith until their knees touched. His longer legs made it more comfortable for him to tuck his knees slightly under Keith’s.

Taking his hands, Lance arranged them so his right hand was atop Keith’s left, and Keith’s right was atop his left. His index and middle fingers rested on the delicate skin of Keith’s wrists and Keith moved to echo the position. He curled his other fingers slightly, squeezing Keith’s hands. He grinned when Keith squeezed back.

Just like when Keith had come to comfort him that first night, Lance followed his lead as Keith breathed. Both of them calmed gradually, knees pressing tighter, fingers gripping, pulses slowing. Lance connected to the soothing waves of Blue easily and turned his focus to Keith and everywhere they touched.

Keith exuded a warmth that Lance had felt in Red, although much subtler. Lance latched onto the similarities between Keith and the Red Lion—their fire, their drive, their (frequent) impulsiveness. Lanced focused everything he had on Keith, Blue weaving her conscious into his as effortlessly as a larger wave overtaking and combining with a smaller one. On an inhale, he felt it. A tiny crackle of something at the back of his mind. He reached for it, cupping the little spark in the hands of his mental self and bringing it just over his heart. He curled around it to breathe life into it, kindle it into a proper fire.

In his mind’s eye, the flame grew and it didn’t burn his hands as it filled them. In the dancing fire, he could see a memory of a sleeping Kosmo and a sleeping… him? _Oh._ He knew exactly what this was. He drew his hands closer and pressed the fire to his heart, drawing Keith to him. It wasn’t every bond he’d lost, but it was his most important and he could distantly feel Keith’s hands gripping his own in the real world, a tremor in them. They calmed the moment that he reached through the delicate, one-sided bond to establish his connection to Keith.

Outside, Keith’s forehead touched his and his breath puffed warmly over his face. Lance didn’t dare open his eyes just yet. Keeping them closed was all that kept the tears welling up from spilling over. The nostalgic comfort of a campfire on the beach wrapped around him, the perfect combination of Keith and Blue gentling the overwhelming realization that he’d done it. He’d repaired the frayed bond between him and Keith. He reveled in the comforting contact and gently pushed at it to strengthen it, smiling slightly when he felt how Keith took everything he was given and held on tight. He took a deeper, steadying breath and was not-so-secretly pleased when Keith was in perfect sync with him still.

_‘I’m coming, Red.’_ He promised silently and pushed at his connection to Keith’s mind. A split-second of hesitance kept him back before Keith opened up and he slid his mind in just like Blue and he had practiced for countless hours. He kept himself small and compact, not wanting to touch on anything that didn’t have to do with the Red Lion. He knew Keith valued his privacy and he wouldn’t do anything to compromise that. A tenseness in his shoulders that wasn’t his own relaxed and he smiled the smallest bit. 

He followed wisps of smoke and the faint sound of a large crackling fire through Keith’s mind, knowing it had to be Red. It led him to a cold, dark chasm of Keith’s consciousness, something that he wasn’t sure Keith was even aware of. It was the hole left by the ripped apart bond. He knelt by the craggy edge and lightly touched it with one hand, the other pressing over his heart and the well that led to Blue’s ocean. He could hear the fire, smell it on the non-existent wind, but where was it? There was no glow of light from it, but the edges of the chasm felt like charcoal, so maybe he was close?

Lance concentrated hard on Blue and their connection, channeling it through him and into the hand at the edge. He didn’t know what to visualize, didn’t know what he needed to close the gap between him and Red. But he knew he needed her assistance to pull her Pride member closer. He felt the rock shift under him and opened his eyes to see a platform had grown in front of him, looking like shifting smoke inside glass or some other invisible barrier. He reached out with his hand and it felt solid. It looked like he was meant to follow.

He shuffled awkwardly out over it, bare feet moving slowly as he held his arms out to balance. The smoke continued to stretch and swirl, growing in front of him and leading him across the ravine. Halfway out, he spotted something on the bridge of smoke. It looked suspiciously like a glowing crack in the smoky surface and his heart lurched at the sight of it. He stared unblinking as his heart beat in his throat. 

Keith’s hands tightened on his outside their minds and it solidified him and his determination. He moved toward the crack and saw that it was in fact just a string. He picked it up and gasped as it tied itself around his index finger, the colors of it shifting like a glowing ember and it smelled faintly of smoke. The end of it stretched out before him so far that he couldn’t see where it went, but he just knew it would lead to her.

“Red.” The string got uncomfortably warm around his finger before tugging sharply and the platform under him dissipated. He fell down into the abyss.

Lance jerked back as he came out of the bond, the sensation of falling stopping suddenly. He shivered, suddenly cold without Keith’s warmth pressing in around him from all directions. He looked down at his finger where the string had been, his hands still interlocked with Keith’s. He could faintly see it and the direction it led, down through the planet just past Keith’s hip. They had a heading. Finally.

He grinned wide and leaned back to whoop. He yanked his hands away, shaking them a little in the surge of energy he had from his excitement. Keith startled and looked a bit lost, having still been in their connection to each other. Lance threw his arms around Kosmo as the space wolf wriggled and danced about from his excitement. 

“Did you find her?” Lance hardly heard Keith over Kosmo’s growly whine as the wolf shoved Lance onto his back and laid on him. Lance couldn’t stop laughing so he just threw his arms up in the air and gave Keith two thumbs up. Keith must have done something because Kosmo climbed off him and curled up around Keith to lay down, letting Lance sit back up.

“Yeah, there was this red string and it yanked me down into a canyon or whatever but,” he brought his hand up, frowning when he could no longer see it. Of course, his connection to Keith… it had faded to nearly nothing after they had let go. They didn’t have the full quintet of Lions to bolster their connection to each other. This was all on Lance (and Blue) now. He reached out to Keith, slipping his hand behind his neck and pulling him in. 

Keith gasped softly and with a tiny, shuddering hitch. Lance didn’t let that stop him, but he didn’t draw attention to it either. Keith’s breaths puffed warmly against his neck and shoulder as he moved in closer. He pressed his temple to Keith’s and reached for their tentative connection again. As it strengthened, he could see the string reappear around his finger. 

“Can you see it, too?” He whispered, holding his right hand up between them, his fingers on Keith’s neck sliding up a tiny bit into his hair. He shuddered under Lance’s touch just the tiniest bit.

“No.” Keith’s voice equally hushed as they huddled close. “But I believe you.” 

Warmth bloomed in Lance’s chest and the smile he couldn’t stop made his cheeks ache with the force of it. He let go of Keith, his eyes staring at the string as it faded as their connection lessened. “We found her, but to keep the heading, we need to strengthen our bond. We can’t safely maintain skin to skin contact while I pilot Blue.” If there was an emergency, they’d both need to be in sealed suits to protect themselves against the vacuum of space.

“Do we need to wait around? We have our heading, we can chart it with Blue and head out now. We’re going to have to make stops for her to recharge anyway, why not practice the bond then?” Keith had a good point, but Lance’s gut suggested they at least get some hold of this before they rush out into space.

“I think we should wait. Just a week, maybe. We’ll get in some practice, and chart our heading with Coran, see where we can make stops for supplies and how often we’ll need to stop for Blue.” Keith leaned back against Kosmo, who grumbled a little and moved his head into Keith’s lap for petting. 

Keith frowned (dare Lance say, pouted?) but nodded slowly. “You’re right, of course you’re right. I’m…”

“Anxious?” Lance asked, his voice low and gentle. Mischief curved his lips as he slanted a look at Keith. “Believe me, I know how you feel. I was her Paladin, too.”

Keith huffed at him in response to his playfulness but he nodded slowly. “We should go tell Coran.”

“Should we?” Lance smiled lazily at him. “It’s such a nice day. I think we should go find a sunny spot to lay in and watch the clouds a bit, first. We could work on our bond.” He knew he had Keith with that last sentence. Keith clearly had missed their bond like he did.

In the end, Lance would say the resulting sunburn Keith endured was worth it. It was only a few minutes in a healing pod to fix up. That was nothing compared to how it felt to laze in the warm sunlight as he and Keith laid side by side, the backs of their fingers gently brushing each other. And sometimes, when they both were caught up in the feeling of the renewed bond, if Lance’s index finger hooked Keith’s and didn’t let go? Well, that was just for them.


	9. Preparation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're nearly ready to leave Altea when Coran gives Lance a gift.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapters are starting to get longer. I don't think anyone has a problem with that.

Thanks to Coran, the Blue Lion was stocked with supplies needed for their travels and they had a plan for resupplies, recharge, and a few requested check-ins. There were even some locations that held errands from the Blade of Marmora for them. Their stops would coincide with a few planets and systems that were hard to reach outside of very specific astral alignments. The Lions communications systems had been pretty strong ever since Pidge had had their way with them.

Keith was on a call with Kolivan in the other room. The glass door was shut, but every so often he would gesture and the movement would catch Lance’s eye. He and Coran were in a room adjacent. It just so happened to be the room they had first met in when Lance had first arrived with Blue. They were double checking the list of packed supplies together. Who knew if they’d have enough close-by stars to recharge Blue, either.

“We could be gone for months. More.” If he were younger, before everything had happened, Lance would have seriously doubted his ability to do this. Now, he was the only one who could and he knew it. No pressure. “I don’t know how far to the fringes of the universe we’ll have to go, or really how long we can travel between charges.” With the Castle of Lions constantly recharging the Lions, they had never really seen how long a Lion could go without a recharge. They never even thought to test it. And their trip to Earth had been direct and much easier to plot a route with stops out on.

“Well, my lad, I can’t rightly say how long you’ll be gone.” Coran tucked a hand into his pocket and withdrew a blue wooden box, the edges gilded and the ornate emblem of Altea in the top. “But I think this will help you on your travels.” He handed it over to Lance, who took it slowly with both hands.

“Help…?” He unlatched the box and opened it. His eyes flew wide as his mouth dropped open. “I-I can’t take this, Coran.” Laid in the box was the once-Castle of Lions, now turned to a raw diamond. Both sharp ends had been neatly capped in gold, with swirling filigree to turn it into a pendant. He knew that they’d replaced it when the IGF Atlas had finished freeing major systems from Galra control over a year ago but he didn’t know it had been returned to Coran. “This… this is far too important and powerful to just… _give_ to me.”

“Lance.” Coran’s hand felt impossibly heavy on his shoulder. “I can think of no one who deserves it more right now.” He squeezed gently and ducked his head a little as he smiled at Lance. “We don’t know what all the Castle Diamond can do. We may never know the full extent of its power. But the one being in all the universe who is most likely to use it to its full potential, for the good of all beings, is _you_. I want you to have it. The people of that castle would have wanted you to have it, even if only to have just one worry lifted from your shoulders.”

Lance carefully closed the box and set it aside on the table. He lightly ran his fingers over the top, overwhelmed by the flood of emotion surging through him. The confidence that Coran had in him was almost too much. He turned back to the Altean and threw his arms around him, squeezing a startled squawk from him before he hugged Lance back just as fiercely. 

“Thank you, Coran.” He squeezed his eyes shut as his thoughts raced over the list of people he knew Coran meant. The other Paladins, both generations, and the Alteans of the long past. That Coran believed all of them wanted him to have the Castle Diamond was just another feeling of A Lot to pile on top of everything else that was balanced on his shoulders. How much more could he carry?

“I’ll keep it safe.” He swore as he pulled back, his eyes slightly wet. He cleared his throat a few times. “I, uh, I better cross reference the list with what we have loaded up.” He picked up his tablet and didn’t throw up a fuss when Coran attempted the fond gesture of ruffling his hair. He picked the box back up as he left and tucked it into the pocket of his jacket, his fingers tracing over the design his entire walk out to the courtyard.

Blue perked up the moment he stepped out into the fading sunlight. She was almost always present in his mind now, his strongest bond would always be with her.  _What did he give you?_

_The Castle Diamond._ He offered the memory of it, both floating in space and just now when he’d seen it in the box. It was so easy a gesture, like shooting finger guns or high-fiving Hunk. Automatic.

_That was the feeling of home I had when we arrived. It’s so strong now._ Her feelings washed over him and homesickness reared its ugly head. Why did he only feel homesick when he didn’t have the choice to go home? Lance sighed and rested his forehead against Blue’s nose as she had lowered her head when he neared. The cool metal was soothing. 

_Coran thinks it will help keep you and the other Lions powered. Which, y’know, good. We’re going to need every advantage we can get._ His nightmares had let up some, but he wondered if it was because Keith had been keeping close almost constantly to strengthen their bond. They had slept together in Lance’s bed every night since his first nightmare on Altea. 

Blue replied but Lance missed it, the telltale _bamph_ of Kosmo appearing behind him was his only warning before his knees were taken out by a mischievous wolf. Before he hit the ground, a firm arm wrapped around his waist from behind and caught him as the now-familiar warmth of his connection to Keith flared back to life. 

Their practice with their bond had progressed to no longer needing skin contact. Standing close together was all that they needed now, which was good enough for the both of them as far as going out to find Red. They could practice more during their travels, which meant that heading out soon was on the agenda.

“Hey.” Their connection brought extra warmth to Keith’s short greeting and _why_ did it make Lance’s heart skip a beat?

“Hey. Kolivan and Krolia happy with our route?” He regained his footing and stepped back and out of Keith’s supportive embrace. He knelt for Kosmo, who nosed under his chin before stretching out and sitting, content to listen to their conversation. Lance ruffled his ears with both hands.

“More or less.” Keith shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest. It had never stopped being his default pose and the nostalgia of it tugged a smile onto Lance’s mouth. “There’s a few detours my mom would like us to go on, if we make good time. They haven’t heard anything from Toldarr for a few years now and they were one of the first places that we helped as relief.”

“I say we visit Toldarr, then. Coran solved our power issue, so our travel time will be quicker.” No needing to wait a couple days for a fully charged Lion.

“Really? How?” Keith shook his head and scoffed when Lance gave him his best ‘it’s a secret’ face. Lance bit back a chuckle when he waggled his eyebrows just to get another reaction. He didn’t move from his crouch in front of Kosmo, even when Keith slowly pushed him over with his boot. It did make him laugh.

“Rude!” He leaned back on his palms, leaning away when Kosmo went to lick his face.

“I mean, have you met me?” Keith deadpanned.

Lance spluttered and pushed himself back onto his feet. “Was that a joke?” He asked excitedly.

“You’re delusional.” He turned away, crossing his arms again.

“Aw, back to mean-Keith.” Lance pouted and looked down to Kosmo. He did his pouty-talk-to-babies voice. “We don’t _like_ mean-Keith.” Lance stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans and tried to be the ‘aw-shucks-iest’ that he could be. Kosmo leaned against him at just the right time to really sell it.

Keith’s arms slowly uncrossed and his brows started to furrow in worry. “Am I…?”

Guilt and a bitter self-consciousness that Lance knew wasn’t his own creeped in cold at the back of his mind. He jerked forward, disrupting the leaning wolf. His hands came up in a placating gesture, as if he hoped to soothe the hurt of his words physically. “No! No, no. It was… c’mon Keith, _banter_. Playful. Teasing. Don’t get me wrong, all the, uh,” his cheeks started to warm, “closeness and deep meaningful talks were _great_ and all but I also missed this.” He felt like he was tripping over his tongue. The words didn’t taste right but despite how open they’d been with each other all week he was having troubles still. “The—the dry wit and the friendly jabs. Our… old normal, I guess.”

He missed their old normal. He missed his old normal with all of his friends. Things had changed so much between him and Keith. So much that he had almost hoped… Well, it had been a silly hope, anyway. And best forgotten. He didn’t need history to rear its head and mess up what they had now, even if it wasn’t quite what he wanted.

Keith smiled just a little bit, but Lance knew that some of Keith’s best smiles were these ones. The private ones that seemed like they were just for him. “Yeah. You… you know me when I’m in serious mode. Takes at least one Voltron Lion to drag me out of it.”

Lance’s answering smile was just as small, just as soft, and seeing Keith’s grow because of it made Lance’s chest ache in a way he refused to acknowledge. “Good news, I’m an honorary one.”

Keith snorted and rolled his eyes. “Sure you are, Lance.”

“I am! Ask Blue, she’ll vouch for me.” He pointedly ignored Keith’s ‘how the fuck would I even do that’ look because, duh, that was the point. He did look up at Blue as she turned her head toward him. “I wish you had eyebrows some days,” he told her. “You would have some killer expressions.”

_Be careful, Little One, I have a feeling that you would not enjoy me having the ability to talk to Keith._ Mirth sparkled in her eyes and the laughter she shared with him was a mixture of great times shared in the Castle of Lions and when Luis had pinned him to the floor while their sisters had tickled Lance relentlessly. 

Lance slapped his hand over his heart. “Blue, I am _wounded._ Keith, ignore her, she’s got nothing important to say to you. Now, c’mon, we need to double check our supplies. Didn’t you want to leave first thing in the morning?” He turned toward Blue as she lowered her head and opened her mouth. “Such a slacker.” He skipped up the ram into the cockpit. “I don’t know how we’re going to keep track of our schedule if you’re—” He squawked as Keith’s arm wrapped around his neck and dragged him in, fingers ruffling his hair and tangling the curls. 

Keith released him as smoothly as he’d grabbed him and headed into the neck and into storage, Kosmo following at a distance as he snuffled every bit of the interior. “C’mon, Lance, I don’t have all day.”

Huffing and trying to tame his hair (maybe he should cut it shorter like how he used to wear it? But his mama always loved his curls), Lance followed him with a grumble. He watched as Keith stumbled a little when Blue moved to settle down and allow them easily into her torso. His connection to her was more than just talking. They were an extension of each other when they focused and it made navigating inside her seamless even as she moved.

“Graceful.” He opened the door in storage, the floor blue lined with yellow lights at the base of the white floor-to-ceiling lockers. Each had a screen the width of Lance’s hands side by side so they could check the contents without opening the doors. Of course, since they weren’t in motion, it was best to visually check everything over.

“No, you.” Keith muttered. They both chuckled at the horrible comeback.

Although Lance had just opened a locker, he closed it and turned to Keith. “The power issue. Power non-issue, I guess.” 

Keith slowly raised an eyebrow and when that didn’t immediately prompt a response he nodded a little. “Yes…?”

“I just didn’t want to say it out in the open, or whatever.” He pulled out the box, staring down at it with apprehension. Coran was right. They didn’t know the full power of the Diamond, so how was he supposed to know what to do with it? It wasn’t like it came with a manual. He took a shaky breath and looked up at Keith. Cautious neutrality was written all over Keith’s face as he looked from Lance to the box in his hand. Lance shoved the box at him without elaborating.

Keith took it and opened the latch with gentle fingers. Lance trusted him to know the worth and importance of the item without him having to say anything about it. The silence around them was deafening and if it wasn’t for Blue bringing the sound of sea waves to the forefront of his mind, Lance might not have kept his calm this well. Still, instead of breathing with the waves like the Blue Lion wanted, he held his breath and watched Keith.

His fellow Paladin didn’t disappoint. The soft gasp, the glint in his eyes where the Diamond reflected the internal lights at him. “Lance. This is—”

“I know. And it’s another Big Deal piled on top of the other Big Deals going on and—” He sucked in a big breath and tried not to choke on it.

“It’s a lot.”

Lance exhaled shakily. “Yeah.” A _Lot._

“So he gave this to you just to charge the Lions?” Keith closed and latched it, handing it back to Lance. He didn’t say anything when Lance hugged the box to his chest.

“No.” He stroked his thumb over the silky smooth bottom of the box like it was a worry stone. “Coran thinks that it might have other, uh, abilities? But it’s not confirmed. He doesn’t know, he just has a gut feeling or something. Blue doesn’t know either.”

“Right.” The pause drew out between them as they both didn’t know what to say. “It’s not like it’s the first magical space rock we’ve dealt with. We’ll figure this out.”

Lance chuckled the tiniest bit, appreciating Keith’s efforts. “Yeah. Thanks, man. How about we… let Future-Lance and Future-Keith worry about it? Right now, we’ve got inventory to do and the sooner we get that done, the sooner I can go for a last-chance swim.” He hadn’t gotten around to it yet and who knew when they’d next be on a planet with a human-safe swimmable liquid?

Keith scoffed but his heart wasn’t really in it. “Voltron forbid you miss the chance to swim.”

“Did… did you just take Voltron’s name in vain?”

Neither of them responded beyond laughter, Kosmo looking between them, his head cocked to one side in confusion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for all the wonderful comments last chapter. I've noticed that I get more when you're getting the shippy goodness. I see how you are 😘 Sorry this one is a bit later than my previous schedule, I don't have as much written in advance. Been have writer's block like crazy. Wish me luck.


	10. Onward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The adventure is underway when they get a surprise call.

Blue’s tail swished back and forth in anticipation, crouched and ready to launch up through the thin clouds above them. Lance had the same anticipatory tension in his body as he sat back in his seat, grinning over his shoulder at Keith who gripped the back and was braced for the jump. Kosmo had happily planted himself between Lance’s feet and normally the wolf’s height would be in the way of the screens, but the Blue Paladin was already turning his head forward and looking through Blue’s eyes.

“Ready?” Keith asked, a tension to his voice that almost was akin to the tension coiled through Blue’s body.

“Get set!” Lance’s smile could not be stopped, even when he felt the tiniest curl of confusion from Keith through their bond.

“Awooo!” Kosmo bumped his snout against Lance’s chin when the wolf flung his head back to howl in excitement. Blue took her cue the moment Lance started to push the controls forward, their minds already in sync. She leapt, thrusters snapping on and pushing them away from the planet.

Once out of Altea’s gravitational pull, she mellowed out and Lance withdrew from her senses. He snapped back, startled, Kosmo’s nose nearly touching his own. “Hey, Kos’, I got something on my face?”

Keith shifted around to his side to look and Lance turned to him, quirking an eyebrow. “Your marks…”

Lance rolled his brow so the raised one smoothly lowered as the other lifted. “What about them?”

“They were glowing, just a little bit…” Keith studied his face hard and Lance could practically feel him trying to puzzle it out although their bond was currently dormant. Lance glanced at him and back to the screens in front of him. Luckily, he didn’t need to give navigation his full focus. They had already plotted their first point to make it around the curve of the planet and were headed in Red’s direction.

“Yeah, they’ve been doing that.” Lance reached up and rubbed at the blue mark on his right cheekbone. “It might be because Blue and I were synced?”

“Synced?” 

Lance was not ready for him to find out he had more weird abilities but Keith needed to know everything Lance did if they were going to work efficiently. “Yeah. Remember when we were, like, training to see through our Lion’s eyes? It’s like that, but more. All the senses. My body pilots on instinct because I’m already flying as a Lion.”

The boggled look he received clearly stated that that also wasn’t something that the other Paladins could do. As far as he knew, at least. This all was new to him, too. “I haven’t always been able to do this, this is new! I had to work on my bond with Blue before I was strong enough to work on ours with you.” It had been a very busy two weeks (and a couple days) on Altea first with Blue and then with Keith. He was glad to have taken a little time between everything to just… relax.

“Is it tiring? Like that new bayard form?” They had talked about so many things over the past several days. Lance had talked at length about being out of fighting shape and how that shield had felt like it took extra effort to put away. Keith had suggested that they spar, but they were both mentally drained from rebuilding their bond that they had thought it best to wait. Maybe on the first planned stop they could get some practice in.

“Not quite like the bayard?” With the bayard, the energy was mostly expended when changing its form. Once it had settled into shape, it was fine. With sharing senses, it was a lesser drain, but a consistent one. “But if used too long, yeah. Plus, it’s a lot of sensory data that I don’t get as boring-human me.”

“You’re not boring.” Keith frowned slightly at Lance putting himself down. They’d known each other long enough that Keith definitely knew Lance’s self-image issues, probably in more detail and scale than Lance wanted him to. But that wasn’t it this time.

“Relax, my knight in bladed armor, I just meant boring as a race. All human senses are shit compared to Blue.” He smiled softly, he cheeks warm from Keith’s attempt at trying to ‘defend his honor’ or some bullshit. It was cute and gave Lance the warm and fuzzies inside. “My point is that it can be overwhelming if I do it too long.” The explanation seemed to be good enough for Keith who just nodded, the set of his shoulders starting to relax.

Lance wondered if it would be something that Keith would be able to do one day. If Lance had the ability and bonded all the Lions and Paladins again, would their abilities grow? Would Keith be able to do this with Red one day? Or Hunk with Yellow? Or Pidge? Or Shiro? Would Lance gain other abilities? Would they all be considered part of the Pride and inseparable?

Would Lance not have to worry about losing them all again, or should he worry now more than ever?

In thought-filled silence, they finished their course around Altea and veered off into the starred blackness of space. Lance leaned toward Keith a little, glancing down at his finger to watch the red thread appear around his index finger once more. It glowed like an ember against his skin, a warmth there that was a balm to his very soul. Red was on the other end and he would find her, no matter where she was.

* * *

The HUD screen to Lance’s left chimed and lit up with Coran’s face but when Lance answered the image switched to a very confused Shiro. A Shiro who happened to be in the middle of a sentence. “—show me what, Coran? I… Lance? I was calling for… A-are you in the _Blue Lion_ right now?”

Lance looked over his shoulder at Keith. “You told _Coran_ about all this but you neglected to tell your own _brother_?”

Keith shifted guiltily and looked away from both Lance and Shiro’s looks. “I mean, he’s not—”

“Biological or not, you’re brothers and that was cold, man.” He didn’t mean it as harshly as he sounded and he made sure to touch their bond with teasing and lightness. Lance turned back to Shiro. “Yeah, so, synopsis: Blue came to get me for a world-saving road trip and Keith invited himself along to go find Red.”

Keith spluttered. “You _need me_ to—”

Lance sighed theatrically. “He’s right, I _need_ him to find Red. It really is a long story, but long story short, we’re getting the band back together to save the universe. Again. When I find the Black Lion, I’ll let you know, fearless leader.” He grinned and winked and _absolutely_ ignored the sound of Keith facepalming behind him.

“Right. Maybe I should join you two—”

“Nope! No way.” Lance waved his hands in front of himself. “Dad, I’m a big boy now, and you need to let me go. I’m old enough to go on this bonding road trip with my BFF Keith.” He glanced over at Keith because there was no way he wanted to miss the look on Keith’s face. The baffled expression near-perfectly mirrored the one on Shiro’s. Two Broganes for the price of one.

“O...kay…?” Shiro wasn’t going to touch that and Lance was glad for it.

“Don’t worry, I love you, too, but right now is Lancey and Keef time.” He ignored the faint and confused ‘Keef?’ from behind him. He said what he said. “We gotta work on my sweet Lion-y superpowers and I promise we’ll fill you in but I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to be on your honeymoon right now and that’s a _big_ no-no for working—”

“Lance, shut up, he was calling for me.” Lance bounced with the playful shove from Keith. He kept quiet as Blue transferred the call to Keith’s phone and, after double checking with Lance that he had the heading, he went to step out into the storage bay. He paused and turned back to Lance. “Can I explain the…”

“Everything? Yeah, you might as well catch him up. But I call dibs on telling Hunk. We are overdue for some serious bro-bonding.” Keith snorted and flashed him a thumbs up before disappearing from view. Lance slumped in his seat a little and looked down at Kosmo who leaned in to rest his snoot on Lance’s chestplate. He smiled softly at the wolf and cupped the base of both his ears with his hands to massage them. “You think he’ll pick up this time? I’m not sure what zone he’s in, he could be sleeping.”

_You won’t know if you don’t try._ Blue offered gently. Lance’s soreness over not being able to get a hold of everyone wasn’t a secret between them. There weren’t many secrets between them anymore.

Lance muttered under his breath in Spanish. It was accompanied by a surge of homesickness that had him sighing and dipping his head to rest his cheek on Kosmo’s head. “Can we call my mama first?” He didn’t bother switching back to English. Blue and the other Lions could translate just like the Castle of Lions had. Half the time they were formed as Voltron Lance had spoken purely Spanish with his fellow Paladins none the wiser.

He caught his mama at a good time and they had a nice, long talk. His siblings popped in, in turns, and he didn’t realize how much he’d missed all their teasing and heckling. Blue’s amusement was summer-warmed tide pools in the back of his mind and he ached to go to a beach. Any beach would do for him at this point. He missed the smell of salt-air and the feeling of warm sand under his feet. It hadn’t even been that long and yet. And _yet._

His mama was giving him tips on cooking in the small galley they were able to set up in one of the rooms in Blue’s torso when Keith stepped in from storage. Lance glanced over his shoulder and waved a little, hoping it would relax the awkward hike of Keith’s shoulders as he stood in the doorway. He mouthed at him to ‘stay’, as he was going to wrap it up anyway. _“Mama, I should let you go. Keith looks like he ate a whole lemon.”_

_“That’s because Keith has manners, baby. He didn’t mean to interrupt.”_ His mother’s eyes absolutely sparkled with mischief and Lance sighed. He knew it was where his siblings got it from (and, admittedly, himself too). _“If I’d known you were going to run off on a major trip, I would have stocked up on extra Mojo Criollo to bring with you.”_

_“Mama, I have your recipe tattooed on the inside of my eyelids, I can make it myself.”_ From the look on Keith’s face and how he kept glancing behind him like maybe he should retreat, Blue wasn’t translating their conversation. _“I know it won’t have your love in it, but I promise I’ll survive.”_

_“You better, baby. You don’t want me to have to come and get you.”_

_“No, Mama.”_ He held his hands up in surrender. Or promise. However his mama wanted to take it was probably for the best. _“I love you. I’ll call again soon, I promise.”_

_“I love you, too, baby. Tell Keith I said hello and remind him that he’s welcome to dinner **anytime**.”_

_“Mama!”_ Lance spluttered and waved her off. _“I’ll tell him, Igottagoloveyoulotsbye!”_ He slapped ineffectively at where buttons would be if Blue was some regular ship and not a sentient sorta-not-really magical Space Lion. Mercifully, she did disconnect the call for him. He leaned around the chair to look over at Keith, Kosmo’s head heavy in his lap keeping him from turning around too far. “My Mama says hi.”

His words seemed to have unstuck Keith from his frozen state. He moved over to him, leaning against the back of the chair. “Tell her I say hi.” He froze again when it was clear that Lance couldn’t exactly do that. 

“I will next time.” Lance knew that tenseness in his shoulders and didn’t want Keith to lock up out of awkwardness. “You didn’t interrupt, by the way. We were wrapping up. Haven’t called Hunk yet, but I’m sure he’d be happy to see you too?” He chewed on his bottom lip when Keith rested his hand on Lance’s shoulder and gently squeezed. He kept it there and Lance appreciated the comfort and warmth of it as the connection rang and, ultimately, went to voicemail.


	11. Connection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While trying to set up an atmosphere-generating tent, Lance calls the last person he thought would answer for help.

They were somewhere in the T’axla quadrant when they stopped on an unnamed planet. They’d been traveling on the Blue Lion for roughly a month. Although this wasn’t their first stop, both of them were starting to get a little stir crazy with the need to stretch their legs. This last stretch had been nearly three weeks. Blue had set down in a large field, the flora around them brightly colored in a way that made Lance think of poisonous frogs. Too many things glowed for his comfort and unlike their last stop, the air wasn’t friendly for man nor beast. 

Blue settled down and lowered her head to let Lance and Keith out onto the surface. Without needing to speak their plans, Keith left to scout the perimeter without so much as a word. It had been habit from their Voltron days and it was surprising how quickly they had fallen into it again. They hadn’t even talked about it. Lance paused at the foot of the ramp and closed his eyes as he felt their bond stretch and then release as Keith stepped out of their range.

Kosmo whined and scratched at the door separating him and the cockpit. It echoed out of Blue’s mouth and down to where Lance stood. He felt guilty for having to shut him in, but it was motivation to get the tent set up. Coran had given it to them for the trip. The Altean had explained that it made a fairly large dome tent with a sizable buffer of breathable atmosphere (once programmed). The outside used some kind of space-magic-science tarp to make a protective barrier from the native ground and it helped seal in the atmospheric dome. If only he’d shown Lance how to set it up.

Lance turned toward a flat area to set down the heavy bundle he’d carried out. The schematics and instructions popped up on his helmet’s HUD. _“Blue, are you sure your translator’s running alright?”_ It was just the two of them and he was happy to stretch his verbal legs by talking to her in Spanish. It somehow made him both less and more homesick at the same time. _“I’m no king of grammar, but this really doesn’t sound right.”_

Blue rumbled and if she could squint her eyes with amusement, Lance was sure she’d be all squinty and smug. _My translators are fine, Little One. It appears that one of Romelle’s acquaintances wrote these instructions. The Altean language must have changed on that colony over the last ten kilopheobs._

Lance took an embarrassingly long time to figure out that that was 10,000 years (ish. Space time was sliced up different and man, it was like the whole Imperial versus Metric thing but _again_ and with time). He wasn’t on Pidge’s level, but he liked to think he was smart most of the time. He had managed to be the best in the cargo pilot division at the Garrison. Why else would they have picked _him_ when Keith left and a spot opened up? He hadn’t been just some random choice. 

“Okay, fair, languages evolve, especially after _that_ amount of time. But that doesn’t really help for here and now.” He sighed and poked at the very flat hexagonal tent. He just wanted to get the darn thing set up and the atmospheric converter running so they could have breathable air inside it. He could still hear poor Kosmo whining from Blue’s stomach. He felt bad, but it wasn’t like they had a space suit for him.

He knew that Keith probably had some idea on how this worked but he didn’t know how long he would be and he didn’t want to keep Kos waiting. He wanted to sigh dramatically but knew that it was bad for oxygen consumption. Best to save it for when he’d completed the job. He compromised with a normal breath in but a very slow and exaggerated exhale that had a bit of a whine to it. He found himself calling Pidge out of reflex. Maybe it was because he was in his Voltron armor again and they were on an adventure in the Blue Lion. Maybe it was a desperate hope for connection. Either way, he didn’t expect an answer.

“Lance.” Lance jerked and whipped his head around. That had sounded as if someone was next to him... or in his helmet’s speaker. Pidge. The call had… connected. “Earth to Lance. Literally, it seems. This is some close-up, otherwise. Where are you?”

“Pidge.” He breathed, completely shocked that they were there, speaking almost directly into his ear. He hadn’t talked to them in over six? Seven months? And here they were. “Shit, I didn’t expect you to pick up.”

Pidge winced and rubbed the back of their head, tousling the much-more-tamed sandy curls. “Yeah, about that… Hunk and I were talking last week—” Their words faded away as a ringing in Lance’s ears intensified. Hunk and Pidge were talking, and recently, too. Hunk was his _best friend_ but he could hardly return his calls but he made time for Pidge? And he knew that was unfair of him, they had been really close back at the Garrison and no one should choose one friend over another but it still… really _hurt._

“...Lance!” Pidge’s tone was short but not sharp. Like they’d been calling for him for a little while. He looked up to where they stood on the screen before his face, making eye contact as best he could through the massive distance between them. “I’m… I’m trying to…” They sighed and shoved their hands into the messy coveralls they wore. “I’m _sorry._ I’m shit at calling people, my mom can attest. I only remember to call Hunk because we have a scheduled, standing appointment to talk nerdy to each other.”

Lance looked away from the center HUD where their image was. He understood, really. Pidge and Hunk had their platonic-nerd-bromance thing. But it… “It still hurts, y’know. You could have set up a time like that with me. Both of you could have. _Keith_ answered my calls more often than you both did put together and Shiro…” He sighed and wished that he could dig his fingers into his hair and tug. “We were our own little family, and when the Lions left… you all gave up. I tried… so hard…” 

“I’m sorry, Lance. I-I… It hurt. The Lions left and there was this giant, sucking hole in my chest and I just… ran scared. We’ve been hurt before, but nothing like that. Nothing a pod couldn’t fix.” They were right. None of them had known how to deal with it, and it made Lance feel so guilty. It was his fault, wasn’t it? He couldn’t hold the bond, he couldn’t stop it from breaking and ripping them all apart.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, hanging his head.

“What? Lance, how the hell is this _your_ fault?” They fisted their hands on their hips and frowned at him from the vidlink. It was clear that they were upset that Lance was blaming himself for something that they thought was out of his control, but also a touch curious if it somehow could be his fault. 

“I couldn’t hold the bond.” He confessed miserably. “The Lions left and apparently I’m some flavor of fucking special and the main reason we had that bond as strong as it was because I’m…” He curled his fingers into what one could only call ‘frustration claws’. He sniffled and wished that he could rub the tears from his itchy cheeks. “Pidge, it’s a really fucking long story which I will gladly tell you but I need to get this stupid space tent up so Kosmo can come out of Blue and we can have a bubble of breathable atmo. Can we just… can we do that bit first?”

“Yeah, Lance, of course.” Their voice was uncharacteristically soft and Lance just nodded, although he knew it didn’t translate well in the helmet. He flipped the camera around and showed Pidge the instructions and what he’d been doing. The grammar really was atrocious but they figured it out and soon enough, Kosmo had run laps around the outside perimeter of human-approved atmo.

Lance ditched the helmet once inside the tent and flopped out on a very comfortable cot. With a lazy flick of his fingers, he transferred the call to his tablet and set it on his stomach. Now he could take those exaggerated breaths. Pidge bobbed up and down as they hovered over the tablet screen from the waist up. “So…” his voice trailed off.

“Start wherever you need to, Lance. We’ve got time.” They had made time for him and now they were settled in some kind of big chair with a steaming mug held in both hands.

He started with the nightmares. It always came back to the nightmares. As he talked, he half analysed the order of his story. He knew, intimately, how Pidge had gone about studying. He wouldn’t have gotten such good grades without their help, even though they hadn’t actually known each other _personally_ long at the Garrison. But even in space, they had researched in a very specific way and it was easy to organize his thoughts and just… lay it all out like this. He hadn’t known how easy it would be to just… talk to Pidge.

And sure, he went on a few tangents. He wouldn’t be himself without getting sidetracked and ranting about something (Keith’s interference was probably the biggest blow up, but the longest tangent was about some completely unrelated Paladin information that he’d dug up on Altea while researching the Lion Touched). All the pieces just started to fit together and Lance felt himself unwinding in a way that talking with Keith for the last month hadn’t done. Which he felt bad about because Keith was pretty much his best friend. (Sorry, Hunk.)

But something felt… misaligned between him and Keith. Just a tiny hint of not quite settled that he couldn’t put his finger on. _That,_ he did not bring up. He didn’t need Pidge to pick it apart, that was his own wire mess to untangle. When he was ready. Whenever the hell that was.

At some point, Lance had pulled out the Castle Diamond and started fiddling with it. The surface of the gem was rough and running his fingers over it with the contrast of the elegant wires wrapping it was soothing. “I totally get some of those caffeine fueled rants from back in the day, now. When you went on those wild research binges. It sucks when you’re finding fuck all when you know it exists. It does and you have proof. And still. Zilch.” He blew a loud raspberry and gently pushed Kosmo away when the wolf went to sniff at his mouth. 

“All I know is I’m able to find the Lions when they can’t find each other, kinda…” Lance’s voice trailed off and he continued after a pause, soft. “Kinda like Allura. But Blue said she wasn’t Lion Touched, it was just an Altean Royalty thing? Or an Allura and Alfor thing, I suppose, since Alfor created them.

“Except not? Blue’s memories go back so much further, it’s like the Lions always existed but they gave Alfor the knowledge to give them physical bodies? It’s just…” he groaned and slapped his hands over his face.

“A lot?” Pidge asked helpfully.

“Capital A, capital L, yeah. As much as it feels like my head is going to explode, I still want to know more.” He wanted to be prepared, wanted to know what was coming. Why was he having these dreams? Why was he Chosen? Why was he Lion Touched and why had no one said anything to him sooner? There were five whole Lions who could have brought it up and he had personally joined his mind to _two_ of them. 

“Then go out and find more!” Pidge gestured wildly with one hand to continue communicating while they took a big gulp of their drink. “You have a giant robotic Lion that can take you to the _best_ source of knowledge and you’ve got the key to get in on your face.” 

“What?”

“ _Oriande,_ Lance. You told me about the glowy shit. Didn’t Lotor say that only Chosen had the face thingies glow? You could go and probably get all the answers you need, plus some sweet Altean Alchemy knowledge too.” Pidge had always been fascinated by the Altean Alchemy but they hadn’t had _time._ Lotor had been monopolizing Allura then but if Lance went, they could pick his brain. 

“Shit, you’re right.” He perked up with a grin, pushing up onto his elbows. The tablet slid back a little. “But we have to get Red first. The White Lion won’t let Keith through. I can’t exactly just jetpack into the rift in my suit safely, and I can’t leave Keith just floating in space, either.” He looked down at his hand where the red thread gripped his index finger, even though he couldn’t see it at the moment. Keith was far enough away still that even reaching out for him found just a lack of the warmth and crackle of fire.

“Okay, then you have a plan. Red, Oriande, Green, Yellow, Black.”

“That sounds completely unbiased.” Lance grinned when Pidge snorted a laugh and adjusted how their legs were tucked up on their chair.

“I miss you.” Pidge set the mug in their lap and looked down at it as they spoke. “I miss you, and Hunk, and Shiro, and Keith. I miss the whole… family thing we had. The war can go fuck itself but… the down time was nice. Being with all of you was…”

“Yeah. I know.” Lance’s voice was soft and fond around the lump in his throat. He moved his tablet and sat up fully, adjusting the hologram’s location above the tablet so Pidge was eye level with him. “Do you remember that time we slicked the hallway with food goo—”

“—and you went to piss Keith off, had him chase you through the castle to that exact hall, pulled off a flawless long-jump over it, and then Hunk, you, and I watched Keith slip and fall over for like ten minutes before he got free and went to go beat your ass?”

Pidge’s barely-muffled snort of laughter got Lance going and by the time they could breathe again, his stomach ached. “I deserved it. H-he had so many bruises. Stars above, my life flashed before my eyes when the door in front of me opened and I ran face first into Shiro.” He coughed on a gulp of air and slapped his chest a bit. Breathing hurt but he really needed this. A good, long laugh with a friend. 

“I didn’t see that!” Pidge bounced a little, leaning closer to the vidlink. “What happened after?”

Lance didn’t hear Keith coming and yelped when he clapped a hand on his shoulder and leaned down to answer Pidge. “I tackled Lance through the doorway but he twisted like a cat midair and we slid twenty feet on my goo-covered back and into a wall.” 

Pidge cackled, eyes bright with tears. “You deserved that. Did Coran make you clean up the healing pods after you used them?”

“ _No._ We couldn’t use them until _after_ we mopped the floor.” Lance groaned. 

“And _after_ we’d showered.” Keith added, sitting on the cot behind Lance, hooking his chin over Lance’s shoulder. They’d been so physically close for the last month that Lance didn’t even react. (Not even when Pidge clearly was looking back and forth between the two of them, then staring pointedly at Lance in a silent demand for an explanation.) 

“We couldn’t even get in the pods without being squeaky clean first.”

“Yup, you deserved it.” Pidge’s dry tone made Keith chuckle and warmth stole over Lance’s face at the feel of it through his back. The smirk on Pidge’s face turned just a bit more mischievous than Lance liked and he knew his doom was coming the moment they opened their mouth and said. “Hey, Keith, do you remember the time Lance—”

But maybe doom would be okay if it kept Keith laughing like this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest chapter so far and I love it so much. I don't have a lot more written after this but your comments have been the fuel to keep me going. This story would not have come this far without all of you!


	12. Toldarr

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A diplomatic mission is rarely ever interesting...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I meant to post this last week and say I was taking a week off but ended up not posting so hi, it's here, and I really hope you enjoy it!

Maybe it was the fact that the Toldarrans were these behemoths of woven roots and mossy stone piloted by miniature hive minds of glowing bugs that gave Lance a creepy-crawly feeling up his back. Who could be sure? Not him. The tickling sensation traveling along his spine had been nearly non-stop since they had encountered them. Lance let Keith take the lead on this as he wasn’t officially a member of the Blade anyway, and instead he played the role of silent bodyguard. (It was so boring. The Toldarrans didn’t even speak human words, it was all humming and clicking made from the bugs movements through the roots and rocks. Keith had some kind of synthesizer that translated back and forth. Lance was not part of the conversation.)

He had half of his mind with Blue, viewing the Toldarran terrain with sharper eyes when he felt himself pulled back to his own consciousness. The bugs had been flickering their colors. They had all been yellow or blue or red, but now they were shifting to this purpley-green that made him think of oil slicks. The big one that Keith was communicating with shifted their stance as Keith typed away on the communicator. Lance’s bayard was in his hand before he’d even thought of it. His free hand snapped forward and yanked Keith back by the hood of his Marmora uniform as he summoned his shield.

The Toldarran’s open palm slammed into the surface, sparks flying as thorns hidden in the palm scraped across the surface. Lance’s heartbeat slammed through his chest and he kept his gaze on the threat before him. Keith pressed to his back and an electric crackle in the air told that Keith’s blade was now a sword. The circle of Toldarrans around them were frozen, poised, waiting and watching as more of the hive minded bugs flickered to their new color. Tension thrummed around them and Lance stared at those thorns, shifting back a half step as the Toldarran began to push down on his shield slowly.

“What did you _say_ to them?” Lance hissed, his gaze flicking around them. So far, there hadn’t been any additional movement but that color haunted him. It was just like the sheen on the… “Shit.” That explained the crawling feeling. _Hey, Blue?_ No answer.

“I didn’t say anything!” Keith insisted, his head twitching the slightest bit toward Lance as if he wanted to turn and make the brief spat more personal. Lance’s swearing, however, caught his attention. “Shit? What shit?”

His gaze flicked to the other two Toldarrans next to the first, their colors almost completely shifted over. Glistening thorns were pushing from between twists and weavings of roots and he didn’t even need to see the shadows of writhing vines in the gaps to know exactly what this had to be. “Keith, we can’t fight them.”

“What do you mean we can’t fight them? They attacked us _first._ Keith’s growl was lower this time, in his chest. Their shoulders slid against each other the tiniest bit as Keith shifted. Lance had only seen Keith’s shift a few times, seen him embrace his Galra traits. It was difficult and exhausting for him to do outside of moments of extreme stress and threat… like this.

“Keith, they didn’t—” The shield took a second harder hit and the tip of a thorn, although stopped, pointed directly for Lance’s eye socket. He’d dealt with that in one of his more recent nightmares and he would heartily pass. He had staggered under the weight of the hit, but Keith had pressed back against him to keep him steady. “It looks like they’re being controlled, they're innocent. Probably. We should run.” His eyes darted around the circle, looking at the colors the bugs displayed. He could see the tiniest of vines stretching between the Toldarrans, going toward those that hadn’t changed their colors yet.

Keith reached behind him and gripped Lance’s wrist. Silent agreement. When the Toldarran reared back to hit again, Lance shoved Keith in the direction of the least infected in the circle around then and they bolted. Keith’s grip shifted to Lance’s hand as they dodged massive legs and creaking swings of fists, as if he could pull Lance along faster. An earth-shaking groan sounded behind them and they both whipped their heads toward it.

Three of the Toldarrans had ripped apart, black, oily vines with wicked thorns had burst forth and now grabbed at the dislodged stones to create new, more agile bodies to give chase. Keith yanked hard when Lance started to stumble, the cold panic at his nightmares coming to life stealing his coordination. “Lance! C’mon!”

_Blue!_ Lance’s mind flew to grab the connection with her as Keith led them through the forest. They zig-zagged, avoiding anything that looked like vines or slithered like snakes. _We need to go, right now!_

_Little One,_ he felt her grip him and pull him into her mind so he could see the vines bursting from the ground to grasp at her legs. She froze them with her breath weapon, whipping her tail to break them as fast as she could. _I am trying my best._

“Keith,” Lance gasped, pulling back into his own mind just in time to twist and avoid hitting a tree branch with his face. Each breath burned in his lungs and it was too hard to just talk so he did the next best thing. He grabbed for their bond and hauled Keith in close with all his strength to share Blue’s memory with him. It took only a second but Lance felt a wave of exhaustion from the effort.

Keith’s fierce determination flooded him like a shot of cinnamon whisky through their connection. He tightened his grip on Keith’s hand, their fingers intertwined as they continued to run through the forest. The crashing and cracking of wood behind them belied how close their adversaries were. They needed to change something up and soon or they were going to get caught. Lance had no interest in finding out what those vines were like when actively attacking him.

The near-deafening explosion of wood behind them was too close. The burst of air pushed at their backs and shards of wood pinged off their armor. Some of the impacts were hard enough to sting. Keith and Lance both resolutely didn’t look back. It would only trip them up. Lance had discarded a half dozen of plan fragments before Keith squeezed his hand, halting his panicked thoughts. Keith’s idea flashed through his mind even as they both moved to execute it.

Right now, Keith was stronger, faster. The sharp tug to his hand had Lance pausing to pivot toward Keith and he was lifted. Keith’s arm clamped around his waist tightly to keep him from getting jostled, the other firmly under his ass and gripping at his thigh. Reflexively, he wrapped his legs around Keith’s waist and braced his triceps on the flat of Keith’s shoulder blade. Keith might be taller, for now, but Lance was still longer of limb.

Lance looked up at the source of the terrible noise and his grip tightened on Keith. Oh no. “Keep running!” Keith’s arm squeezed his waist in confirmation. Lance could feel his breath as he panted, the side of Keith’s face pressed just below his chestplate. He snatched up his bayard and as soon as the rifle formed in his hands, he took his shots. Jostled or no, he had a much easier time shooting like this without having to worry about running and not tripping over roots or running into trees. Keith’s plan had been right so far. 

His laser fire burned through the glistening thorny vines. He targeted the thin, whip-like vines that the behemoths were using like a grappling hook to propel their broken ‘bodies’ closer to the fleeing Paladins. Each time, another, smaller vine grew out of the stump left behind, but it was smaller, lighter in color, and hopefully not as strong as its predecessor. But they wouldn’t win like this. They wouldn’t _escape_ like this.

“I _am_ running!” Keith insisted, his gait amazingly smooth and even despite the terrain and the fact that Lance clung to him like a baby animal. Keith kept his upper body fairly upright and steady which slowed him a little but it helped Lance take perfect shot after perfect shot. 

Lance swore he could feel Keith’s pulse through his stomach, the beat in time with his own. Their breath had synced too, and the thud of Keith’s feet echoed it all. A song of percussion between their bodies, bond singing above it all with the harmony of _them._ Lance reached for Blue again and in the connection he felt air rushing over plating. He closed his eyes as the world seemed to slow around him. He didn’t have enough time to speak so he hoped that this would work.

He slipped his hand to the back of Keith’s neck and lightly gripped. He pushed images at him, trying to quickly communicate the cliff in the woods they’d seen on their way up to the Toldarran village and that Blue was now on her way. If they leapt off the cliff, she’d be able to catch them in her mouth and get them out of here as quickly as possible. 

Keith’s quick change of direction was all he needed to know that the message had been received loud and (hopefully) clear. He grinned and took his hand back after a friendly squeeze. Time to resume kicking ass. Kicking vine? Whatever. Every shift and jolt of Keith’s body into his as he ran just felt like an extension of himself. A surge of joy at their synchronicity made Lance bite back a whoop of joy, but he knew that Keith felt the very same way.

“Hold on!” Keith called over his shoulder and Lance nodded even though Keith couldn’t hear it. He just kept shooting the vines as they whipped closer, getting nearer despite Lance’s quick and deadly shots. He hardly let up, and still it had advanced. There were two more, moving to catch up behind it. At least three Toldarrans had been ripped apart just so these vines could… what?

This… this was more serious than he thought. There had to be more going on. This was more than just about the Lions. 

Lance’s heart shot up into his throat when he was launched into a free-fall. Keith reached up for his shoulders and Lance slid down his body, clutching back. His hair whipped sharply at his face, stinging his cheeks and forehead until he slapped at the button on his helmet to close it completely. Blue opened her mouth just as he spotted her and all too quickly they slammed into the wall at the back of the cockpit. 

White-hot pain radiated from his shoulders, ribs, and left leg. His left side had slammed into the wall and his right side ached in an echo of pain from Keith’s own impact. At least his leg had managed to cushion Keith partially, but he was definitely going to have a bruise on his inner thigh from whatever was in that belt pouch. The impact stole the breath from their lungs and all he could do was stare at Keith, stunned from the fall as Keith stared back. As Blue evened out from her dive, they slid to the floor.

Lance struggled to suck in a breath as his back hit the floor. He still clung to Keith with all four limbs and slowly unwound himself so Keith could pull back. Keith pushed up, bracing over him on his hands and knees. They both panted in their helmets as they found their breath. Lance stared up at Keith as the adrenaline surged through their bond. The relief of safety washed over them both as Lance stared up at the glowing purple marks on Keith’s helmet. He didn’t know who started it but soon they were giggling breathlessly, their helmets clacking together as Keith went limp on top of him.

“Shit.” Lance gasped, reaching up to unlatch his helmet and shove it off. He ran both hands through his sweaty hair. “Fuck.” Keith bounced against him as he continued to laugh. Apparently his counterpart found that hilarious because Keith snorted and it set off another fit of giggling. Lance fumbled for the catches on Keith’s helmet, not understanding how the Blade of Marmora suit worked.

Keith pushed up onto one elbow to slap his hands away and got it off. The mask disappeared into the hood as Keith slid it back, still laughing. A flash of fangs could briefly be seen as Keith sagged back down onto Lance. His mouth twisted into a sideways smile, his eyes still faintly glowing with narrowed purple irises and yellowed sclera. His shoulders shook a little, either from Lance’s giggles or his own, but as they just watched each other, they started to settle. 

Keith rested the point of his chin just below the vee in Lance’s armor. Lance tucked his hand behind his head, the other forgotten on Keith’s ribs. He tipped his head down to look at Keith and quirked an eyebrow up in silent question. Their faces were so close that he could feel Keith’s breath puff against his lips. He licked his lips at the tickling sensation, his gaze dipping down to Keith’s mouth.

Before Lance could stop himself from doing something very, _very_ foolish, they were interrupted by Kosmo’s sudden appearance on top of them. The space wolf clearly had run out of patience for them to come and open the door to let him out of storage to greet them. He wriggled on top of Keith and smooshed his face toward Lance’s armpit so he could lick Lance’s nose with a quick flick of his tongue. He wiggled, making Keith squawk and push off to the side to get out between the two of them. Keith sat up on one heel, with the other leg still thrown across Lance’s thighs. He looked rumpled, his hair a mess as it escaped his low ponytail. His eyes had gone back to normal. 

Taking that as a cue or a saving grace, Lance shoved back and sat up. He hopped lightly to his feet and grabbed his helmet from the floor. That… that had been stupid of him. Stupid dumb old _feelings_ cropping up like daisies just because Keith had been _giggling_ of all things. He cleared his throat and stepped out into Blue’s torso to take a moment to breathe. He leaned back against the shut door, a hand pressed over his heart. Now was not the time to think a rumpled Keith _cute._ He pushed away from the door and walked down the narrow hallway to the cramped bathroom to splash a little water on his face. He ran cold, wet fingers through his sweaty hair to cool himself down. There was just something about cold fingers on his scalp that was soothing.

When he’d calmed himself enough (and fixed the porcupine mess of his hair), he returned to the cockpit. Helmet on and seated, he took the HOTAS in hand and didn’t look back at Keith. He knew he hadn’t moved, still sitting on the floor with Kosmo. “Brace, we’re going to be leaving atmo.” Back to business. Mission thoughts time. Not… He closed his eyes briefly and gave himself one second to enjoy the vision of a flushed, laughing Keith.

This might be a problem. 

“Braced. Let’s get out of here.”


	13. A Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was time to get everyone together.

Every screen on Blue’s HUD was taken up with familiar faces. Lance’s chest ached with how much he missed all of these people. And they had all gathered together at Lance’s (or Keith’s) request. On his far left were Coran and Romelle, who looked to be in one of the library's private study rooms, chatting quietly. The next screen had Pidge and Matt together in their lab (muted and gesturing over some schematics off screen) split-screened with a pensive Sam. Hunk and Shay were together on the next, smiling and waiting patiently. Krolia and Kolivan were also quietly conversing, Shiro gave Lance the dad-liest concerned look while Curtis tried to convey his apologies with silently mouthed words over Shiro’s head. Veronica and Acxa kept sneaking glances at each other and Iverson filled the last screen with a scowl as broad as his shoulders. Lance couldn’t remember the last time that he had seen all of them together. It was like a little found-family reunion. 

Well, it would be, if not for the dire report he was about to give.

He didn’t know where to start, but he had everyone's attention from where he sat. He swallowed back nerves. Keith rested his hand on his shoulder and Lance flicked his gaze up at him gratefully. He turned back to the screens and cleared his throat. “It’s good to see you all. I’m hoping everyone has at least read the briefing packet that Keith sent you all a couple vargas ago to catch you up on our current position.” He paused, looking over everyone as they nodded.

“The situation on Toldarr has made it clear that this threat is more than just missing Voltron Lions. The nightmares that I’ve been having are coming true, and these vines are able to possess sentient beings.” He could only be grateful that the Toldarrans were made of rock and root and bugs and not something more akin to his own physiology, or his nightmares might have been even more graphic than they already were. “We must exercise extreme caution when visiting planets that are not our own, at least until we know more.”

“How did it react to blaster fire?” Iverson was the first one to speak. Somehow, Lance wasn’t the least surprised by his question, either. He _would_ be the first person to stop thinking of a possessed being as a victim, wouldn’t he? Lance hated that Iverson’s first question was a violent one, but Lance had to be brutally honest with himself about the strengths and weaknesses that the people before him posed. He was, at heart, a support player. The best way to support and protect everyone he cared about was to know how best to direct their movements and focus.

“Not well. I had to focus on severing what I could and they grew back or compensated fairly quickly. We don’t know what kind of energy source they pull from to keep up this growth rate and currently it isn’t safe to collect samples.” He saw Pidge’s shoulders sag slightly and he shot an apologetic look their way. It just wasn’t safe for them to examine even a tiny bit of the vines. “Only burning it thoroughly with a laser torch has been successful so far.”

Lance’s eyes widened as a thought occurred to him and he snapped his head toward where his sister’s face was on the HUD. “Ronnie, the night Blue came to get me, she was infected. She was on Earth.” His gut swooped and he felt a wave of nausea rush through him. She couldn’t have known, but she had landed on Earth, infected with those vines. He took a deep breath to try to settle his stomach.

Veronica’s gaze hardened and she nodded sharply. “I’ll make sure to check on our family and move them away from the farm. We’ll quarantine the area until we’re able to confirm the lack of, uh, vine presence?” 

“Acxa, get a group together to check the woods around the fields.” She and Veronica already looked like they were ready to jump to their feet and start that very moment. “I’ll send you a map based on what I remember.” Luckily, his dreams had burned the exact location into his mind. He didn’t think he’d ever forget where he’d found Blue waiting for him as long as he lived.

“Pidge,” Keith’s calm command voice was everything Lance wished his own could be. This was his mess to lead and he’d started okay, but now just one thing had thrown him off completely. “We’ll send you the sensory data Blue has from her time infected and during the fight on Toldarr. Maybe there’s something that you can use as a tracking signature?”

“I’ll see what I can find, and we can prioritize the McClain farm.” They confirmed with a short nod. Lance sagged in relief. Pidge would be able to find something if anyone could.

“What should the rest of us do?” Shiro asked, a small smile on his lips. Lance smiled back. That was Shiro’s ‘I’m proud of you smile’, he was sure of it. 

“We need to make sure that no one goes near Toldarr for any reason,” Lance began. “We don’t know how the vines got there, but we need to make sure to take every preventative measure to make sure that it doesn’t spread.” How had the vines even ended up on Toldarr? Had Blue gone there during the time that she didn’t remember and the vines had originated there? They didn’t know. And they couldn’t know either. They sure as hell weren’t going to pop by for some samples.

Keith leaned over Lance’s shoulder a bit more, his gaze focused on the Blade members. “There aren't any nearby planets, but Toldarr has an outer ring that is solid enough that it should be safe to create some small, temporary bases.” In fact, it was where they were currently settled. Keith had thoroughly scouted the area to make sure it was secure enough for them to do this call without worry while Lance checked Blue over for vines. 

“Based on the information we have on Toldarr,” Krolia began, her head angled off to the left where she was likely interacting with the file. “Five should be able to create a comm circle strong enough to reach the closest Blade base so they’d be able to report on any other activity. We can have the bases up and running in about 14 vargas.”

“Once we have the ability to track the signal, we should sweep other planets with sentient species.” Lance added. Just protecting others from Toldarr is one thing, but if other planets were contaminated and their peoples able to move freely… “Keith and I will continue our primary mission and make all the stops we planned on. I think our focus should stay on the Voltron Lions. We don’t know if this is just some… infected plant or if it’s something much bigger. We might need Voltron.”

Maybe the Lions had been the original target of the vines, but why? Lance didn’t know and he didn’t know how to figure it out. Lance had too many questions, but hopefully Oriande held answers. He just needed to pass the trials and find the right answers. He wanted to protect everyone; every world he’d traveled to and every world he hadn’t been to yet.

“We need to present a unified front to all civilians.” Keith spoke up when Lance was silent, his thoughts temporarily dragging him from the present. Lance looked up at him as Keith continued. “Coran, I think it best if you and Hunk work together as our lead diplomats to come up with our official story and how much we should share of what we know. We’ll spread it as far as we can. We want anyone who might know something to send it along to the Blades as soon as possible so they can be first responders and triage. A fast quarantine will be crucial. We’ve seen the destruction these vines are capable of. The loss of life could be immeasurable.”

“We will have something sorted out before the end of the quintant,” Coran said with a snappy salute. 

As tasks were confirmed, people closed out of the conversation or left the vidscreens if they had shared. At the end, the five original paladins were alone with each other and Lance was overwhelmed with an ache in his chest akin to homesickness. He knew it was the bond, frayed and raw at the edges. He found himself reaching for the crackling warmth of Keith’s connection and wasn’t disappointed to find it already reaching for him. 

Always so full of words, Lance didn’t know what to say.

“Some road trip with your, uh, BFF, huh?” Shiro attempted to break the silence with an awkward smile. For someone only eight years older than Lance, Shiro sure knew how to make himself sound like an old man. 

“When have you known either of us to do anything by halves?” Lance asked, half joking, his own smile a bit weak.

A too-long stretch of silence sat between them before Pidge lost their patience and threw their arms in the air in exasperation. _"Hunk!_ Now’s your chance.”

Lance’s gaze flew to Pidge at the outburst and he felt a touch of quizzical confusion through the bond with Keith before he looked over at Hunk. The man in question rubbed the back of his neck, looking down at the ground before up at the vidlink again. He had all the mannerisms of a kicked puppy. 

“Lance… I’m _so_ sorry, man. A-and I know ‘sorry’ doesn’t even begin to cut it. I owe you the apology of my _life_ because we’re besties and I’ve been a crappy one.” Hunk looked up at him and Lance had no idea what kind of expression he wore. He hadn’t been expecting this, not now. “There’s nothing I can say that doesn’t sound like some dumb excuse and you deserve better than excuses.”

“Hey,” Lance could see a shine in Hunk’s eyes. If _he_ started crying then _Lance_ would start crying and that wasn’t fair when he wasn’t here. He couldn’t hug him from this far away! “Hunk, c’mon, man. I know you didn’t mean to. We… we were all so focused on getting everything back to our previous normal that we threw the new normal aside…”

“You didn’t.” Keith pointed out from beside him, his voice low and impossibly gentle. Lance saw the others look to Keith before he, himself, looked up at him. Keith’s cheeks were slightly flushed, from all the attention, maybe? "You didn't throw it aside, Lance. You fought like hell to combine the two normals into the… The, uh, best normal."

"Eloquent." Pidge couldn't help ribbing Keith. They never could help themselves from teasing their friends. "But absolutely right. You put in all this work, Lance, now it’s our turn. Let us make it up to you. I call first dibs. Thursday evenings, Earth time. I’m calling you.”

“Then I call dibs on Mondays.” Hunk interjected, before anyone else could say otherwise. “I’m usually free in the mornings. I know you don’t like getting up super early, but you can call me whenever you get up, if you want. And I’ll call you by, uh, ten. Yeah, ten.”

Lance couldn’t stop the smile, or the tears welling up in his eyes. That they wanted to try—that they were going to try—already meant so much to him. He swallowed past the lump in his throat and was about to thank them when Pidge added:

“And biweekly, we’ll need a Garrison Trio call, of course.”

“Sounds like your social schedule is filling up,” Keith mumbled, bumping Lance’s shoulder to make room so he could sit on the arm of the pilot’s chair. “How will you find the time to save the universe with me?”

“What, feeling jilted, Kogane? You can schedule some one-on-one time with me, too.” Lance winked to go with his pickup line and felt an until-then withheld tear trickle down his cheek. He blinked and ducked his head to wipe his face and caught sight of an aborted movement. Keith had been about to… what? Brush the tear away? His heart thudded near-painfully at the thought. He looked up at Keith just as the other Paladin looked away.

“We should have a Paladin call.” Shiro offered, pulling Lance’s and Keith’s attention to him. “Sundays. And not just to check up on you while you two are who knows where in space.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Lance grinne when he heard Keith echoing him. He held up a fist to bump without looking and grinned when Keith did without complaint. “But yeah, a Paladin call would be nice. I can fill you all in about the frankly boring lore that was made up about Voltron and the Paladins in the ten thousand year gap between round one and round us.”

“And you can tell us all about Oriande when you go. I want to know _everything_.” Pidge bounced a little on their stool, leaning closer to the screen. “You can’t just drop the Chosen bomb on me and not tell me everything.”

“Are you sure you weren’t a mosquito in a past life, Pidgeon? Do I need to get you a straw?” He made ridiculous slurping noises as Pidge stuck their tongue out at him, so much attitude scrunching up their face. “Hunk, did Pidge catch you up? Or is this topic numero uno for our first bromantic besties brunch… call.” He couldn’t think of another b-word.

“Bare minimum, man. It’s fine though, you’re the better storyteller.” He ignored Pidge’s coughed _'exaggerator’_ and kept on going. “We can chat and cook together, if you’re in a place where you can do that then?”

Lance shrugged a little. He wasn’t sure what day of the week it even was back on Earth, let alone how long they would have to wait here to make sure nothing got in or out of Toldarr. “We’ll definitely cook together sometime, buddy. I just don’t know when yet.”

“Hey,” Hunk shrugged, “works for me. I just figured you’d be less jealous of my cooking if you were also making something delicious.” He chuckled at Lance’s affronted noise. Shay said something softly from off screen and Hunk looked over and nodded. “Alright guys, we’re definitely going to catch up more, but I gotta go. Coran’s already pinging me for diplomat stuff, and I’ve a class to teach that I need to finish prepping for.”

Lance missed Hunk before he even disconnected from the call. His departure prompted the others to leave as well, leaving Lance feeling lonely even though he wasn’t alone. He slumped back in the pilot’s seat as the HUD screens dimmed. Keith flopped his hand on top of Lance’s head and ruffled his hair vigorously, making him squawk. The gloved hand tugged him over sideways until his head smacked lightly against Keith’s breastplate.

“Feel better?” Keith’s voice rumbled through his armor and against Lance’s cheek. He still sat on the arm of the pilot’s chair.

The lump in his throat was back and he simply nodded, biting his lip. He felt silly about crying (again) over the reassurance that his second family did still care about him. Keith turned toward him, bracing his feet on the other arm rest as he hugged him. A soft, muffled sob escaped him and Lance tugged sharply to pull Keith into his lap. His feet slipped and he held onto Lance that much tighter.

“Thanks.” He cleared his throat after his voice broke over an embarrassing squeak. Keith just hummed and carded his fingers gently through brown hair. Lance didn’t know when Keith had removed his glove, but he melted against Keith as his fingers massaged slow whorls into Lance’s scalp. 

“Anytime.” Simple. Fact. Keith would be there for him. “I’ll always lend you a hand.”

Lance made a weird choking sound that was meant to be a laugh. “Is that because Red’s Voltron’s arm?” The long silence and then weary sigh made him grin. He turned his head toward Keith, his temple pressed against a ridge of Keith’s breastplate. “Aw, c’mon, Keith. There’s no ‘arm’ in a little joke between friends, right?”

“You’re feeling better. I’m releasing the wolf.” Keith pushed Lance back and climbed off his lap, heading for storage.

Lance whipped around and caught Keith’s hand as he passed, squeezing gently. “Hey. Really. _Thank you.”_ Keith smiled softly at him. The good smile that was fond and crooked and had just a hint of a dimple in one cheek. His gaze made Lance feel… warm. Either that, or maybe it was Keith threading their bare fingers together and squeezing just once.

“Lance…” Just above a whisper. Neither of them looked away as the moment drew out. Keith’s cheeks started to pinken and eventually he managed to stammer out, “U-uh, wolf. Releasing. Yeah.”

Lance blinked as the warm hand left his own and the delicate quiet moment was broken as an eager space wolf _bamph’d_ into his lap and started to lick his face. He didn’t quite know what had just happened (beyond Kosmo, because that was pretty obvious). It was something to mull over when he wasn’t trying to evade wolf tongue, at the very least.

Good thing he and Keith were stationed here over Toldarr for at least the next nineteen hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of the longest chapters so far! And this is the longest thing I've written by myself and I have all your lovely support to thank for this. I love you all!!


	14. Near

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They were approaching Red's location and Lance couldn't stop himself from trying to reach her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to break the whole finding Red sequence into three chapters because these shorter chapters make it easier for me to put things out. I named the chapters similarly to kind of establish the three-parter thing so I hope it's as clever as I think!

The string around Lance’s finger had been getting thicker, its grip tighter and almost hotter as they neared her location. For long stretches, Lance didn't so much pilot the Blue Lion as he was one with her. His hands rested loosely on the HOTAS as they flew through space, his mind with Blue and reaching ever forward. He stretched as far as he could, grasping at the thread that drew him toward Red, trying to touch her mind before they found her body. 

(The first time he had done it, he’d scared Keith. He had pulled out of his search quickly when he felt his body being vigorously shaken only to look up at a very worried Keith. After that, they had decided on a way for Lance to show that he wasn’t mentally present so Keith would know.)

Lance opened his eyes and unfolded his legs from a tailor’s seat with a grimace. His feet were pins and needles and his eyes itched in that tired way that made him want to just curl up around Kosmo and sleep for hours. Being connected to Blue felt natural and didn’t seem to tire him much, but they were also extremely close. Red was still miles upon miles away and their bond was still broken and raw within him.

Keith stepped into the cockpit from storage and Lance turned to look at him. Keith pulled up the mask, pushing it and his hood back. He must have stepped out to talk to the Blade while Lance searched for Red. He frowned at Lance. “You look like shit. You pushed yourself too hard, again.” 

Keith was right, this wasn’t the first time that Lance had searched for Red for hours. Still. “Rude. Do you speak to your mother like that when she’s focused on a goal and making minor personal sacrifices for it?”

“No,” Keith walked over to lean against the pilot’s chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “Because she could beat my ass even while exhausted. You, on the other hand, look like I could blow you—” Lance’s ears stopped working. Maybe because all the blood suddenly rushed to his cheeks.

Lance startled when Keith hauled him up by the arms and pushed him toward storage. “Wh-what?” Was Keith…? Were they going to…?

“I’m flying, you’re napping.” Keith didn’t let go of him until he could shove him onto the hammock. Lance nearly flipped it and ended up on the floor, but Keith steadied the canvas before he could fall. Kosmo hopped up and immediately laid atop Lance, stopping him from getting up and protesting further. “We need to land on the first thing we fit on and if you’re  _ this _ out of it, I’m not telling you why until you’ve slept.”

“But…!”

“Lance, for fuck’s sake, go to sleep.” Shrinking back at Keith’s sharp tone, he nearly flinched when Keith rested a hand on his chest. “Trust me?” Keith murmured, looking contrite that he’d made Lance pull away.

Lance smiled the tiniest bit. “Always.”

Keith nodded and left, the lights dimming until just the tiny auxiliary gold floor lights were left. Kosmo sighed heavily from where he laid on Lance. He reached down and buried his fingers into the thick fur and closed his eyes. It felt so nice to close his eyes. _Goodnight, Blue._

_Sleep well, Little One._ Lance slipped under, lulled by the sound of waves. 

* * *

Fire, hot and undeniable, burned briefly through Lance’s mind as he trudged across craggy black rock toward a mountain. It caught him off guard and he stumbled, clutching at his helmet and nearly dropping his bayard. Keith gripped his arm and tugged him upright. Although his mouth moved, Lance couldn’t hear anything. The silence roared in his ears and he looked around them at the too empty terrain. There wasn’t even any cover other than a scattering of large rocks, but they were few and far between.

They needed to press on, they were here for a reason, after all. As they climbed the mountain, dark foliage burst from the cracks in the black rocks. Trees sprouted, twisting up into trunks that spread into branches with black leaves and purple veins. The branches lengthed and sagged like a willow, swaying despite the lack of wind. 

Lance eyed them warily, keeping his distance as the path before them narrowed. The solid rock underfoot broke into smaller and looser pieces as they ascended and Lance fought to stay upright. The cracks under his feet grew and he had to step around them, winding his way up higher and higher. Suffocating, hot wind whipped at him and he could feel the bite of it through his armor. 

The mountain grew steep enough that it was more of a climb than a hike, the foliage encroaching and brushing against him. He couldn’t hear Keith behind him and kept checking to make sure that he was close. The lack of any sound was unnerving. He could see the dust on the wind and feel the rocks slide beneath his feet but heard none of it.

He holstered his bayard when it became clear that he needed two hands to continue climbing the mountain. His progress slowed and with it came a tingling, itching feeling along his back. He paused and carefully turned to ask Keith about it but he wasn’t there. He froze and looked back to the path they’d walked up but the path was gone and only thick, inky black foliage remained, growing ever closer.

Screaming Keith’s name did nothing. There was no sound. Maybe... Maybe Kosmo had come and _bamph’d_ him away. Maybe he’d come for Lance next if he just held tight. He waited, focusing on just breathing, sweat trickling down his back and making it itch even more. That’s when the rocks _lurched._

Lance scrabbled for purchase as he slid down the rocky facing, sharp edges ripping through his gloves and biting at his hands. He grit his teeth and held on, his eyes squeezed tight when he finally slowed to a stop. He opened his eyes and froze. He was positioned over one of the large cracks he’d been stepping around. It was some kind of thermal vent, he could feel the heat blasting against his armor, could almost taste the acrid smoke that was starting to curl from it.

Between one blink and the next, a giant glowing eye appeared in the crack below him. He yelped and scrambled back, his feet slipping over loose rocks. He landed hard on his back and sat up quickly as one of the black willow branches whipped his way, trying to grab him. The cracks of the mountain began to glow and Lance stared in wide eyed horror when everything shook. 

Lance didn’t notice the willow branches curling around his arms until they gripped him tightly. They caught his legs next and he tried wrenching away, but they held fast. He looked down as they started to crawl over his shoulders and down his chestplate. Thorns began to grow, glistening and sharp. Cold, paralyzing fear curdled in his gut. The vines had been here all this time and he hadn’t even noticed.

The vines gripped him and pulled him back toward the foliage, forcing his limbs out and away from his core. He had never felt more vulnerable while in his Voltron armor. Thorns pressed at the flexible under armor over his stomach and the tips of vines poked at the edges and seams of the chest plating as if to crack him open. 

A roar so loud that Lance felt it through his whole skeleton ripped through the silence. It didn’t stop. If anything, it got louder and louder. Lance looked up the mountain and saw all the cracks glowing and then… some sort of oozing, glowing sludge . It was thick, but moving quickly, and with the most intense heat he’d ever felt…

_Lava._

The cracks under foot grew exponentially and Lance’s cry was swallowed by the roar. Lava bubbled up and consumed him, burning away the vines and kept burning. He curled up tightly and… opened his eyes when he wasn’t burned to a crisp. A bubble had formed, keeping him safe inside. It opened up to the sky and Lance looked around at the lava flow which had laid waste to most of the forest and kept going.

_I knew you’d find me, Kit._

* * *

Lance jerked awake, nearly slamming his head into Keith’s, who had braced over him, his hands on Lance’s shoulders. He was soaked in sweat and shivering as he sucked in lungfuls of air. Ignoring the concerned look from Keith that silently asked if he was okay, he used their connection and his bond with Blue to cast out and reach for Red. His excitement and hope waned after he realized that he still couldn’t feel her.

What he could feel was their lack of motion.

“Did we stop?” He asked, his voice rough and cracking. He looked around, noting that Kosmo had left him while he slept. The hammock was cool enough that he had probably left him when he fell asleep.

“Yeah. We’ve landed on the far side of a moon.” Keith moved over to a storage locker and pulled out a bottle of water. He passed it to Lance and remained silent as he drank.

“Why?” Lance asked eventually, having downed half the bottle already.

“There’s a Galran tribe on the planet’s surface. Kolivan has requested that we gather some intelligence on what they’re doing there.” The Galra had splintered after everything, some returning to clans and tribes and finding their own homes outside of New Daibazaal. Others were not so peaceful and wanting to return to how things had been during the reign of the Empire. “It’s just recon, but we can’t let the Blue Lion be sighted.”

Lance nodded, feeling uneasy. He hoped that whomever they found were just settling in and making a new home. “Are there any other inhabitants on the planet?” He shifted off the hammock and stood. 

“Not that we are aware of.” Keith moved toward the cockpit and Lance followed, sipping his water. “My plan so far is to wait for whenever the string points directly to the point below us, hopefully during a night cycle, and we fly down to get to Red.”

Lance leaned into Keith’s side after they stepped into the cockpit and checked his finger for the angle of the string. Based on the data on the HUD before them and the angle of the string, they wouldn’t have to wait for long. He moved to the pilot’s chair and pulled up a smaller holoscreen to tap out some math. He didn’t call himself the Paladins’ sharpshooter just because he could shoot things well. Trajectories were important to both his weapons of choice and for piloting. “It’ll be maybe…” he chewed his lip as he tapped out just a few more numbers, “an hour before we should head down?”

Keith leaned against the back of the pilot’s chair. “I don’t have any tools with quite the range to scan and see where the Galra are from here. But I can start a continuous scan once we are en route.” His fingers skimmed Lance’s neck where the under armor ended.

Swallowing, Lance glanced up at him, turning to look. Keith very pointedly wasn’t meeting his gaze, but he didn’t stop the gentle touch, either. Usually, with the hanging weight of _waiting_ over his head he would be restless but… It was nice to sit here in silence and enjoy the brush of their bond. He reached up and took Keith’s hand as he closed his eyes. 

He could think of no better way to spend the time until descent.


End file.
